Charan Jeath Singh is an Indo-Fijian businessman, politician, and Cabinet Minister. From 1992 to 2005 he was Mayor of Labasa. He is the founder of the CJS Group of companies.[2]
Early life
Singh is from Labasa and was educated at All Saints School and Labasa College before training as a pilot at Ardmore Flying School in New Zealand.[3] He worked as a pilot for Air Pacific and Air Fiji from 1982 to 1987, when he went into business.[3]
Political career
Singh was elected the Mayor of Labasa representing the Ratepayers' Association in 1992[4] but in the municipal elections of 2005 his Association lost in a landslide result to the Fiji Labour Party (FLP), winning only two seats.
Following the 2006 Fijian coup d'état he criticised the military regime's detention of journalists,[11] and was arrested by the regime for criticising Mahendra Chaudhry, who at the time was collaborating as interim finance minister.[12][13] He later formed the Fiji People’s Party in the expectation of contesting eventual elections.[14] In 2013 he supported the regime's Political parties Decree, which effectively banned small parties,[15][16] and called for the mandatory death penalty for treason to deter future coups.[17] He supported the regime's 2013 constitution.[18] He later applied to be a FijiFirst candidate for the 2014 election but was rejected.[19]
He contested the 2018 election as an NFP candidate,[1][20] but was unsuccessful.
In March 2022 he resigned from the NFP and joined the People's Alliance.[21] He later said that he wanted to show that the PA was not a racist party but a multiracial team.[22]
He contested the 2022 election as a PA candidate[23] and was elected[24] with 5616 votes.[25] On 24 December 2022 he was appointed Minister for Multi-Ethnic Affairs in the coalition government of Sitiveni Rabuka.[26] He was also appointed Minister for Sugar. One of his first actions as a Minister was to invite Mahendra Chaudhry to chair the board of the Fiji Sugar Corporation.[27]
