The Fiji Labour Party has shown their support to the call made by the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Barbara Malimali, for the government to decide urgently on an independent audit of the 2022 general election results.
In a statement, Party Leader and former Prime Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, says it is inexcusable that the Commission has been kept waiting for an answer for over a year now, and the election was marred by a 'glitch' in the FEO results app for close to six hours on the night of 15th December 2022.
He says the post-glitch results had dramatically changed in favour of the FijiFirst Party, as it had following similar 'glitches' in the previous general elections.
According to the statement, on 16th December, 2022, when the count was in process, the leaders of Labour, NFP, Unity Fiji and People’s Alliance wrote to the then Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, rejecting the results thus far announced.
They called for an immediate halt to the tallying of votes and demanded an urgent audit of the election management system.
Chaudhry says he wrote to Prime Minister Rabuka on January 3rd 2024, calling on him to commission an independent audit of the entire electoral process for the 2022 general elections as per their earlier demand and he is still waiting for an answer from him.
The FLP Leader says it seems Rabuka has changed his mind after having narrowly managed to get into power.
He is calling on Rabuka to act in good faith and have an independent audit of the system and the results of the 2022 elections done without delay.
We are currently trying to speak to the Prime Minister on this matter.
