Supervisor of Elections, Ana Mataiciwa is now planning to write to the new Attorney General, Graham Leung as they did not receive any update from the former Attorney General, Siromi Turaga and the Solicitor General, Ropate Green Lomavatu on the investigation of the glitch drama that occurred during the 2022 general elections.
The Supervisor of Elections highlighted this during fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan when asked about the glitch audit as there is suspicion on why an investigation has not been done.
Mataiciwa says last year they were informed that an audit would take place and as a matter of accountability, the Elections Office cannot audit their system, and they need someone independent.
She says they were proactive when they were approached by the former Attorney General and the Solicitor General by providing all information but nothing has moved since March last year.
The Supervisor of Elections says the lack of update from the AG’s Office is affecting their operations mainly the storage space issues because they had to make adjustments for 2,666 ballot boxes which were supposed to be destroyed 6 months after the elections.
Mataiciwa says the ballot boxes are there so there can be no excuses that the audit cannot be facilitated.
She says they now need space for the preparation of the Local Government Elections and the 2026 General Elections.
Mataiciwa further says they had last written to the AG’s Office in March last year, however, nothing was forthcoming not even an acknowledgement despite the cabinet decision.
The Supervisor of Elections says since then they have been following the proper channel by following up with them.
She adds when the glitch issue is solved they will be able to regain the trust of their stakeholders with better operations within the team.
We have sent questions to Solicitor General, Ropate Lomavatu and are now awaiting his response.
