Civil society organisations do not need seats in Parliament to influence policy, question government decisions and scrutinise legislation.
This has been highlighted by the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC) criticising Minister for Public Works, Ro Filipe Tuisawau’s comments accusing NGOs of crossing the line.
The FWCC says civil society groups have an important role in shaping laws and policies and representing the concerns of ordinary people.
FWCC Coordinator Shamima Ali says they take offence at Tuisawau’s remarks.
Ali says rights-based civil society organisations and NGOs serve as a bridge between ordinary people and the policies that govern them.
She says their role is not to seek political power but to ensure those in authority are questioned and their decisions are scrutinised.
Ali adds that politics is not limited to membership of political parties, but also involves bringing about positive changes for society and the people.
She says civil society groups have every right to question the Government, noting that their members also vote in elections and pay taxes that contribute towards the salaries of parliamentarians.
Ali has also reminded Tuisawau that Fiji is a democratic country, not a dictatorship, and says freedom of speech and expression gives people the constitutional right to speak out.
FWCC says Tuisawau was elected by the people, including members of civil society, and has a responsibility to serve them.
Tuisawau has told the civil society organisations to read the clarifications on centralised voting during the general elections from legitimately elected representatives in Parliament rather than from unelected commentators or civil society whose actions and misleading statements undermine the democracy they purport to uphold.
He says some NGO leaders are confused and they need to make a decision now on whether to remain a NGO leader or become a politician and stand in elections.
He stresses they cannot be both.
The Centre for Democracy and Dialogue, Fiji Council of Social Services, Fiji Women’s Rights Movement, Social Empowerment and Education Programme, FemLINKpacific and Transparency and Integrity Fiji have strongly condemned the Government’s amendment to the Electoral Act 2014 last Friday permitting ballot papers to be counted at centralised counting centres rather than at the polling stations where votes are cast.
The organisations say they consider this one of the most concerning and regressive amendments to Fiji’s electoral framework, introducing unnecessary risks of electoral manipulation and undermining the transparent and independently verifiable vote-counting procedures established over the last three general elections.
They say the amendment introduces a new section 89A, allowing the Electoral Commission to approve the counting of ballot papers at one or more counting centres instead of polling stations, and to approve special procedures for such counting.
They say in simple terms, ballot boxes containing uncounted votes can now be moved away from polling stations, transported to another location, stored and eventually opened and counted elsewhere.
The organisations say this fundamentally changes the safeguards that have protected the integrity of Fiji’s election-day voting process.
