The Acting Registrar of Political Parties has suspended the following political parties for 30 days with immediate effect for contravening Section 26(2) of the Political Parties (Registration, Conduct, Funding & Disclosures) Act, 2013 [“Act”]:
1. All Peoples Party;
2. FijiFirst Party;
3. New Generation Party; and
4. We Unite Fiji Party
Acting Supervisor of Elections (ASoE) Ana Mataiciwa stated that Section 26(2) of the Act, requires all parties to provide to the Registrar, within 3 months after the end of each financial year, the record of accounts of its income, expenditure, asset and liabilities audited by an auditor certified by the Fiji Institute of Accountants.
“All political parties were given a one-month extension to submit all accounts and other disclosures by 29 April 2023. However, until today, the four named parties have not complied with these requirements,” said Ms. Mataiciwa.
The ASoE further stated that the parties are suspended for thirty days and have sixty days to remedy the breach/contravention or face deregistration as a Political Party. During the period of suspension, the suspended parties cannot operate, function, represent or hold itself out to be a political party.
An additional notice has been sent to the four political parties to submit their List of Sources of Funds for which extension was granted till 29 April 2023.
Nevertheless, two other political parties who have failed to submit their List of Sources of Funds are the Social Democratic Liberal Party and the People’s Alliance.
Ms. Mataiciwa reiterated that according to section 23(4) of the Act, a party that fails to submit its Sources of Funds is liable to a penalty of $100 for each day the non-compliance continues and if it remains non-compliant after 30 days, the party must be deregistered. The 30 days period will end on 29 May 2023.
“All non-complying parties have been reminded that failure to submit will result in deregistration,” said the ASoE.
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