FEO and Commission should authorise forensic audit of ‘glitch’ - NFP

The National Federation Party strongly believes that as independent institutions, both the Fijian Elections Office and the Electoral Commission have the powers under the Constitution as well as the Electoral Act to authorise a forensic audit into the IT election management and results systems.

The NFP says nobody including the Office of the Attorney General and the Solicitor General’s Office should delay the process of an independent forensic audit into the Election Management and Results systems of the Fijian Elections Office.

NFP General Secretary Kamal Iyer says it is a matter of grave concern that both the Acting Supervisor of Elections, Ana Mataiciwa and Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Barbara Malimali have publicly expressed concern at delays to probe the infamous “glitch” that happened during counting on Election night on December 14, 2022.

He says the Attorney General is only the Minister responsible for Fijian Elections Office.

Iyer says the management and operations of the Fijian Elections Office is the responsibility of the Supervisor of Elections who reports to the Electoral Commission and nobody else. He says Section 75 of the Constitution as well as Section 3 of the Electoral Act empower the Electoral Commission to authorise an independent forensic audit.

Iyer says these empower the Electoral Commission to take initiative to ensure transparent and orderly conduct of free and fair elections.

The NFP General Secretary says what happened on election night is not a joke, and it had the potential to unlawfully change the outcome of the polls.

Iyer says only an independent forensic audit can establish if the glitch was designed to manipulate the results by altering votes of candidates.

He adds that the audit should also be able to establish whether the glitch was caused by the fact that others not connected to or authorised by the FEO to manage the system managed to infiltrate it or try to manipulate it externally.