19 Jan 2004

Fiji's National Federation party says it will not disband

5:12 pm on 19 January 2004

Fiji's National Federation Party says it has no intention to disband despite the Labour party asking it to do so to prevent vote splitting in the future.

The call follows the win by the Labour party in the Tavua open by-election.

But, the NFP leader, Prem Singh, says there's no way they will give up over the results of a by-election which had a relatively poor voter turnout.

Mr Singh says the NFP realises it needs to go back to the drawing board.

"We will go back to the people. I think we'll have to look at our party machinery in terms of campaign structures. It's how we get our message out to the people - this has been a cornerstone of NFP all along and I think we'll have to revisit those areas."

Mr Singh says the door will be open to dialogue with all parties in terms of an election strategy which could see the NFP enter into an alliance of some kind.