Niko Nawaikula has been disqualified from being a candidate in the 2022 general election and his seat in Parliament has become vacant.
This was highlighted in a statement by the Speaker of Parliament Ratu Epeli Nailatikau.
Ratu Epeli says Nawaikula had been convicted with one count of tendering false information to a public servant and one count of obtaining financial advantage and he is therefore disqualified from being a candidate.
He says this is particularly so given that the maximum penalty for the offences that he had been convicted of is a term of imprisonment of 5 years and 10 years respectively.
Ratu Epeli says the Constitution lists the criteria for who may be a candidate for an election to Parliament and inter alia provides under paragraph (g) that a person may be a candidate only if the person has not, at any time during the 8 years immediately before being nominated, been convicted of any offence under any law for which the maximum penalty is a term of imprisonment of 12 months or more.
