Issue No: 946; 16 July 2001

The Party was formed by Dr. Tupeni Baba who was expelled from the Fiji Labour Party for breeching Party policies and the Constitution. Other members expelled from the Labour Party have also joined Baba's Party. These are 3 members of parliament Haroon Ali Shah, Isireli Vuibau, and Vinod Maharaj, and a few failed candidates. Shah and Vuibau became disgruntled when the Labour Party rejected Shah to be its lawyer in the Constitutional challenge it was making. Shah, who was originally tasked to prepare and file the case, was relieved of his duties when his preparation was found to be seriously wanting by international experts in the field. Maharaj had migrated to Brisbane but was recalled by his brother and Baba supporter Navin Maharaj who stays in Canada.

Baba had earlier stated that an ethnic Fijian should be the Prime Minister of Fiji. He then proposed his name for the post. But he lost overwhelmingly a leadership challenge he made for the Labour Party's leadership earlier this year.

The leadership challenge was made in the weeks before the Chandrika Prasad appeal decision was to be made. Baba was propped up by renowned opponents of the Fiji Labour Party in a bid to show the Court that the People's Coalition Government was divided and could not be handed back power. The challenge failed but the split engineered by some of those businessmen who financed the terrorists was used as a ground by the President to not to reconvene the Parliament after the Chandrika Prasad judgment.