Raman Pratap Singh (6 June 1950 – 18 May 2020) was a

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

an lawyer and politician of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n descent.

Early life

Singh was born on 6 June 1950 in Buabua. He graduated with a law degree in 1977 and began working as a lawyer in 1978. He was a director on the Sugar Cane Growers Council and member of the Fiji Sugar Commission. In 1982, he began working as a town clerk for Labasa Town Council.

Political career

Raman contested the 1994 election on the

National Federation Party The National Federation Party is a Fijian political party founded by A. D. Patel, A.D. Patel in November 1968, as a merger of the Federation Party and the National Democratic Party (Fiji, 1960s), National Democratic Party. Though it claimed to ...

(NFP) ticket, winning the Bua Indian seat in the House of Representatives.The Fiji Times - Monday, February 28, 1994 Singh was elected President of the mostly Indo-Fijian National Federation Party (NFP) on 31 July 2005, replacing

Dorsami Naidu Dorsami Naidu is a Fijian lawyer and former politician. On 29 July 2005, he announced his intention to resign as President of the National Federation Party (NFP) at the party conference on 31 July. Naidu took over the leadership of the NFP, onc ...

, who resigned facing

sexual assault Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...

charges (of which he was subsequently acquitted). Singh's immediate task was to fight the parliamentary election, held on 6–13 May 2006, with the hope of regaining representation for the NFP, which it lost in the 1999 election. The attempt was a failure, with the party dropping to just 6 percent of the vote, its lowest to date. Singh resigned as NFP president on 29 March 2014, citing the need for "new blood" and "fresh faces" in the party leadership. He attempted to regain his seat for the NFP at the 2014 election in September, but was not successful. Singh died on 18 May 2020 in

Suva Suva () is the capital and largest city of Fiji. It is the home of the country's largest metropolitan area and serves as its major port. The city is located on the southeast coast of the island of Viti Levu, in Rewa Province, Central Divi ...

Family

His father,

Ram Jati Singh Ram Jati Singh, OBE (1908–1992) was a Fiji Indian politician and landlord who was elected to the Legislative Council in the 1966 general elections on the National Federation Party (NFP) ticket. He was re-elected in the 1968 by-election with an ...

, was a member of the Legislative Council, elected on the

(NFP) ticket.

Lisa Singh Lisa Maria Singh (born 20 February 1972) is a former Australian politician. She was a Senator for Tasmania from 2011 to 2019. She had previously been a member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly, representing the division of Denison from 2006 ...

, the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

for

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

, is his niece.

References

1950 births 2020 deaths Fijian Hindus National Federation Party politicians Indian members of the House of Representatives (Fiji) 20th-century Fijian lawyers Politicians from Bua Province Fijian politicians of Indian descent {{fiji-politician-stub