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Three candidates have emerged as front-runners in the race for the leadership of the Fiji Labor Party.

Dr Rohit Kishore is leading the race, followed closely by suspended lawyer Kini Malawai and current president Lavenia Padaras.

Current leader Mahendra Chaudhary has been adamant that the party will wait until the election results are announced before elected members elect parliamentary leaders, but there is opposition within the party to this stance. Dissatisfaction is growing.

Efforts are underway within the party to hold a delegate meeting for party members to elect a leader next weekend.

MPs are understood to be unhappy with the decision to wait until after the election.

“We will wait until the election results are announced and then the elected parliamentarians will choose the parliamentary leadership,” Chaudhry said yesterday.

• Dr. Rohit Kishore is not new to Fiji’s political landscape. He may be the change the party desperately needs. Young, energetic and qualified, former Under-Secretary Lands will be able to lead the party in a new direction. Dr Kishore survived a smear campaign by Mr Chaudhary’s son Rajendra Chaudhary. Mr Chaudhry left for Australia after his medical treatment was suspended.

• Kini Malawai, a former journalist and Suva-based lawyer, was running for the Conservative Alliance (Matanitu Vanua) constituency in the unelected seat of Lau/Taveuni/Rotuma. He lost to the late Sabenaca Draunidaro by more than 4,000 votes. In 2012, he was suspended from practicing law in Fiji until 1 March 2016.

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• Lavinia Padaras won the Nausori Naitasiri open constituency for the Fiji Labor Party (FLP) in the 1999 parliamentary elections. She was then appointed Minister of Women, Culture and Social Welfare. She lost her House of Commons seat in the 2001 general election and was unable to regain her seat in the 2006 election, but she entered the Senate as one of nine opposition leader candidates. Appointed.

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