The campaign director of Fiji's ruling SDL party, Jale Baba, is to stand against the Labour Party leader, Mahendra Chaudhry, in next month's general election.
Mr Baba will be the second SDL candidate to stand against Mr Chaudhry in the Ba East Open seat.
The SDL had earlier chosen Faiaz Ali as it candidate when Mr Baba announced his wish to take on Mr Chaudhry.
An SDL management board meeting at the weekend decided that both Mr Baba and Mr Ali will now stand for the same seat against Mr Chaudhry to split the vote and share preferences in an attempt to unseat the Labour Party leader.
Mr Baba says he is confident of winning because Fiji does not need a leader like Mr Chaudhry who has not solved any of the pressing issues facing the nation like land, sugar and others.
But Mr Chaudhry, who has represented the electorate for 18 years, has dismissed the challenge as laughable. END
