Prime Minister and Chair of the Constitution Offices Commission Sitiveni Rabuka has confirmed that the secretariat has received a complaint filed by former Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem against current Supervisor Ana Mataiciwa.
This comes as Chief Justice Salesi Temo acquitted Saneem and former Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum on charges relating to receiving a corrupt benefit and abuse of office.
Saneem warns that the continuation of implicated officers in their roles ahead of the general elections poses a direct threat to the credibility of the electoral process.
He says the Chief Justice found that the prosecution, which originated from a complaint lodged by the FEO, was built on a flawed interpretation of a contractual clause that had ceased to exist as a matter of law.
The lawyer says the Chief Justice expressly found that it was none of the Fijian Elections Office officials business to put a flawed interpretation on the relevant clause and that the referral to Police was unnecessary.
Saneem says the Chief Justice has made clear that this prosecution should never have happened.
He says he was prosecuted, detained and dragged through the Magistrates Court and then the High Court on the basis of a misleading document by officers who had no business interfering in his contractual affairs.
He stresses the judgement is a complete vindication, not just of him personally, but of the principle that public officers cannot weaponise their institutional positions against individuals without consequence.
Saneem lodged a formal complaint with the COC today requesting referral of Mataiciwa to a tribunal.
He has filed the complaint on the grounds that Mataiciwa referred a non-electoral matter to Police without any statutory authority and bypassed the mandatory reporting pathway to FICAC under section 18 of the Electoral Act 2014, initiated and authorised a complaint based on a contractual clause that the Chief Justice found did not legally exist, denied Saneem an opportunity to be heard before the referral, issued a media release on 14 February 2023 that damaged his reputation before any investigation findings had been made, and relied on a personal associate for legal advice in a matter directly concerning her predecessor, creating what he alleges was a serious conflict of interest.
He is asking the COC to suspend Mataiciwa from the exercise of her functions pending the outcome of the inquiry.
While responding to questions by fijivillage News, Rabuka says the secretariat will circulate to all the members of the COC for their comments and recommended further actions.
When questioned how long it will take as we are in the elections period, Rabuka says it should not take very long because there had been a lot of correspondences to and fro at the time when it happened.
He says now that Saneem has lodged this claim, they will go back over those correspondences and find out which one is correct and recommend that the COC approves.
