Coughlan Supervisor No More

New Zealand barrister, Doctor Maurice Coughlan is no longer the Supervisor of Elections of Fiji.
 
This was revealed yesterday by Constitutional Offices Commission member Gavin O’Driscoll, who said the commission was in the process of informing Dr. Coughlan.
 
Dr. Coughlan was last week announced as the Supervisor of Elections by commission chairman Rishi Ram. In an earlier statement the commission had said that he had 15 years experience as a self-employed barrister in civil, criminal and other tribunals.
 
However, over the weekend it was revealed that Dr. Coughlan was disbarred in 1992 from practicing law in New Zealand due to bad business transactions. He has since been readmitted and runs a barristers firm in Auckland, New Zealand.
 
Several criticisms have been levelled against the Constitutional Offices Commission in relation to the apparent oversight.
 
Ousted Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase believes there is no excuse for the oversight in the appointment of a lawyer, who had been disbarred, to such a serious position.
 
Qarase said for a position such as Supervisor of Elections, a thorough check should have been conducted on Dr. Coughlan’s background , which  the Constitutional Offices Commission failed to do.
 
Former Supervisor of Elections Semesa Karavaki called for the members of the Constitutional Offices Commission to step down as they have embarrassed the people of Fiji by not conducting a simple background check before appointing the new elections supervisor.
 
Karavaki also said that a local person should be appointed to the position. He said locals had taken Fiji to the polls over a long time and an earlier comment by commission chairman, Rishi Ram, that no local qualified for the position was misleading.
 
Ram said his statement regarding locals qualifying for the position had been misunderstood as he meant that no locals, who qualified, had applied for the position.
 
The National Federation Party also called for a local appointment as Supervisor of Elections.
 
He also strongly supported the removal of Dr Coughlan as Supervisor of Elections.
 
NFP General Secretary Pramod Rae said the credibility lies with the Supervisor of Elections to give correct information on the election results and a person hiding personal information on his misconduct should not be appointed to this duty.
 
Constitutional Offices Commission earlier sent an email to Dr. Coughlan requesting information on his disbarment and the his reasons behind not revealing this during his interview.
 
However, late yesterday COC member Gavin O’Driscoll said Dr. Coughlan had agreed to withdraw from the post and that he did not wish to go into the details of his disbarment.
 
When contacted in NZ, Doctor Maurice Coughlan only said that he made the decision to withdraw to allow the Constitutional Offices Commission to look for a suitable Supervisor of Elections.

Dr Coughlan said a lot had been said about his appointment and he knows Fiji needs to appoint a Supervisor of Elections as soon as possible. He said he come to this decision in the best interest of everyone and the matter should now be put to rest.
He did not want to make any further comments.
 
O'Driscoll confirmed that the second candidate short-listed will now be approached to take up the post of Supervisor of Elections stressing that a thorough background check would be conducted on this candidate prior to an appointment.