1 March, 2021
The Fijian Elections Office [“FEO”] this morning made submissions on the Electoral Amendment Bills 2021 to the Standing Committee on Justice, Law and Human Rights.
Supervisor of Elections Mr Mohammed Saneem whilst making the submission described Fiji’s current electoral framework as follows: “The first law introduced for elections since 2006 was the 2012 Electoral Registration of Voters Act followed by the 2013 Political Parties (Registration, Conduct, Funding and Disclosures) Act. In September 2013, the Constitution of the Republic of Fiji brought into effect the modified version of the Open List Proportional Representation system, single Constituency, single voter list and the concept of one person one vote one value was enshrined in the highest law of the land.
“In 2014, the Electoral Act came in and more features of the electoral system were finalized such as ‘One-day voting’ followed by counting at the polling station, introduction of multiple stations at each polling venue, the rule that voters can only vote at the polling station they are assigned, overnight provisional results and the widely used d’hondt system for calculating seats in Parliament,” Mr Saneem explained.
Since then, the FEO has conducted two (2) general elections and both these elections were observed by the Multinational Observer Group [“MOG”] that was co-led by Australia, India and Indonesia. The MOG, following the observation of the election, declared that the elections were credible and represented the will of the Fijian people. The MOG also made some observations and recommendations in specific areas that Fiji would have to address.
Mr Saneem said Parliament had amended the laws previously in 2017 in line for the 2018 General Election.
“It is indeed very positive that Parliament is once again considering further amendments following the experience in 2018 for the 2022 General Election. Internationally, it is always regarded as good practice for Parliament to review and approve laws for the General Election well in advance of the date,” he said.
Following the 2018 General Election, the FEO conducted an extensive review of the electoral processes in Fiji as well as the existing electoral laws in preparation for the next general election. In the review, FEO identified that in-order to deliver more effective election operations, the existing laws outlining the procedures needed to be streamlined.
In summary, there are 56 clauses proposed to be amended which includes 11 clauses in the Electoral (Registration of Voters) Act, 2012, 31 clauses in the Electoral Act, 2014 and 14 clauses in the Political Parties (Registration, Conduct, Funding and Disclosures) Act, 2013.
“To the Chair and members of the committee, you will notice from the amendments, the amendments introduced what I would say is the settling down of the laws that are there making it more mature, more functional and with greater coverage of the processes in order to ensure there is legitimacy to the activities of the FEO,” Mr Saneem said.
“I would recommend the Committee to submit to Parliament to approve the amendments to the Electoral (Registration of Voters) Act, 2012, Electoral Act, 2014 and Political Parties (Registration, Conduct, Funding and Disclosures) Act, 2013.”
-Ends-
