Campaign laws were breached by NFP and People’s Alliance, removal of material ordered - SOE

Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem has found that both the National Federation Party and People’s Alliance did not comply with section 112 of the Electoral Act when printing and authorizing campaign materials.

Saneem has also directed both parties to remove the campaign materials being complained about and warned to comply with the law in future or they will be referred to FICAC.

The Supervisor has also issued a section 144A Notice to the NFP to remove a video that contains false information and was admitted by the political party itself.

Saneem attempted to issue a Notice under section 144A to the Facebook page “Vote for Change”, however the page no longer exists on Facebook.

It was found that the video that was being circulated still exists on the NFP Facebook Page and to that end the Supervisor has exercised his powers under section 144A and asked NFP to remove the video as it contains false information.

Saneem has also expressed a concern about the level of professionalism displayed by the People’s Alliance representative at a political parties meeting which was shared live on the Fijian Elections Office Facebook Page.

He says the conduct by the representative at this high-level meeting calls for concern and it has been noted that the People’s Alliance has apologized for this person’s behaviour.

The Fijian Elections Office says it has always encouraged political parties to send senior representatives who may be able to conduct themselves in proper professionalism and decorum at meetings in which other senior political party leaders attend.

The complaints were received from the FijiFirst on 11th July 2022 against the NFP and the PAP.

The Supervisor says the complaints were forwarded to both parties for their responses, however it is noted that all parties to the complaint have made various remarks and responses in the media.

The FEO says regardless of what was said in the media, the Supervisor of Elections has conducted an independent enquiry and the findings are relevant for the purposes of clarity on what the law requires in terms of political campaign and political financing as well as the facts that are relevant in the application of the law.

In his findings, the Supervisor also says there appears to be a lack of understanding on the definition of campaign materials but for the purposes of clarity, campaign in the Electoral Act 2014 is defined as “any act done for or in connection with promoting or opposing, directly or indirectly, a registered political party or the election of a candidate or candidates, or any act done for the purposes of influencing, directly or indirectly, the voting at an election, through any medium.”

It further says that Section 112 of the law requires that any campaign material that is published must include: name and address of the person and organisation who authorised and paid for printing of the material; name of the company that printed the material and their business address; and the date of issue.

Meanwhile on the issue of donations, the FEO will be conducting further enquiries into this matter as has been highlighted by the Supervisor including asking for details for certain groups like “Rock the Vote” which will be looked into.