Saneem clarifies that the FEO will have workshops and meetings in any venue available to the FEO

Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem has clarified that the Fijian Elections Office will have workshops and meetings in any venue available to the FEO if they need bigger venues or when the FEO conference room is not available.

Saneem made these comments after Fiji Labour Party Leader Mahendra Chaudhry questioned why the Fijian Elections Office was holding the Electoral Processes Workshop for Political Parties at the Attorney General’s Conference Room at Level 9 Suvavou House last Thursday.

Chaudhry had said in a statement last Wednesday that the Attorney General and Minister for Elections Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum is also the General Secretary for the FijiFirst.

He added that the Fijian Elections Office should be seen to be maintaining a distance from the Government of the day.

However Saneem said in a press conference yesterday that there are many other offices at Suvavou House.

He asks what was the urge to simply bring about the question that this is where the Attorney General’s Office is.

The Supervisor also asks what was the rush and why fijivillage sent the questions at 3pm last Wednesday and immediately posted Chaudhry’s story on the fijivillage website.

Fijivillage  had sent questions to the FEO Communications and Saneem for comments at 3pm last Wednesday after the concerns were raised in the FLP statement. We then received an email message that our email questions were received. A follow up call was also made to the FEO Communications team and we were told that the email was received by the Manager PR. We then said that we were awaiting the response as the FLP had said that the meeting was scheduled for the next day.

The story was not immediately published.

No response came through and the story then ran at 5.05pm last Wednesday since the meeting was scheduled for last Thursday, saying that the concerns were raised by the FLP and we were still awaiting the FEO’s response.

Saneem also called on fijivillage to come out and clarify where a photo of the Supervisor of Elections shaking hands with the Attorney General was taken during the 2018 general elections.

Fijivillage had reported at the time that the FijiFirst General Secretary had come over to the National Results Centre to observe how things were progressing. He had shaken hands with the Supervisor outside the centre and then went to the Results Centre where other party representatives were also observing the process.

The footage was taken by our 2018 elections camera crew.

Communications Fiji Limited stations, Legend FM, FM96, Viti FM, Navtarang and Radio Sargam and website, fijivillage stress that we are not in the business of personalizing and politicizing issues.

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