Parveen Kumar Bala is a

Fiji Fiji, 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 of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

an politician and former

Cabinet Minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ' prime minister', ' p ...

. He served as Mayor of Ba from 1997 to 2009, and in the Cabinet of Frank Bainimarama from 2014 to 2022. He is a former president of the Fiji Local Government Association.

Local government

Bala was first elected Mayor of Ba in 1997, becoming the youngest mayor in the country. He held the position for 12 years, until the military regime disestablished elected local government following the

2006 Fijian coup d'état The Fijian coup d'état of December 2006 was a coup d'état in Fiji carried out by Commodore (rank), Commodore Frank Bainimarama against Prime Minister of Fiji, Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase and President Josefa Iloilo. It was the culminatio ...

. Bala was also an unsuccessful

National Federation Party The National Federation Party ( Fiji Hindi: नेशनल फेडरेशन पार्टी; Fijian: ''Mataisoqosoqo ni National Federation'') is a Fijian political party founded by A. D. Patel in November 1968, as a merger of the Fe ...

candidate for the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

in the 2001 election. He polled 28 percent of the vote in the Ba East Indian Communal Constituency. He stood again at the 2006 election, but again failed to win the seat. Following the

, Bala was appointed Special Administrator of

Lautoka Lautoka (, ) is the second largest List of cities and towns in Fiji#List, metropolitan area in Fiji. It is on the west coast of the island of Viti Levu, in the Ba Province of the Western Division, Fiji, Western Division. Lying in the heart of ...

. The new Special Administrator for Ba (a non-elected position roughly analogous to mayor) is Arun Pravad.

Member of Parliament

On November 2013, he was charged with dangerous driving causing death after a road accident in Lautoka. The trial was delayed, and despite facing charges he was selected as a candidate for the FijiFirst party in the 2014 Fijian general election and was ruled eligible to stand by Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem. He was elected with 6,358 votes. He was acquitted of the charge in July 2016. Following the election he was appointed Minister for Local Government, Housing and Environment. In May 2015 he was appointed Minister of Infrastructure and Transport following the resignation of Pio Tikoduadua. As a Minister he promised to restore local government elections, but failed to do so. He was re-elected in the 2018 Fijian general election with 5,063 votes. He was subsequently appointed Minister for Employment, Productivity and Industrial Relations, replacing Jone Usamate. He was selected again as a FijiFirst candidate for the

2022 Fijian general election General elections were held in Fiji on 14 December 2022 to elect the 55 members of Parliament. The elections took place following the passage of controversial electoral amendments. In addition to a struggling economy, significant campaign issu ...

, and was re-elected, winning 3604 votes, but FijiFirst lost its majority, and he became an opposition MP. On 10 October 2024, Bala had been named deputy leader for the G16 faction.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bala, Praveen Politicians from Lautoka National Federation Party politicians Fijian Hindus Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Mayors of Ba (town) FijiFirst politicians Government ministers of Fiji Sports ministers of Fiji Housing ministers of Fiji Environment ministers of Fiji Indo-Fijian politicians Fijian Tamil politicians Indian members of the Parliament of Fiji