Saneem clarifies issues on suspended SODELPA
He was responding to an opinion published in the Fiji Times.
The Registrar of Political Parties, Mohammed Saneem, yesterday clarified issues regarding the suspended Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA).
Mr Saneem was responding to an opinion piece by Wadan Narsey in The Fiji Times’ Saturday edition, labelling the decision of the Registrar to suspend SODELPA as abrupt.
Mr Saneem did not dispute the opinion, but is urging writers to follow the timeline clearly documented in the media after the decision was passed by the High Court.
He said his office had no choice but to suspend the party.
Mr Saneem said the now suspended political party had until July 27 to remedy what he calls as their failures.
“There has been no dispute to the contrary,” Mr
Saneem said.
He also highlighted that the party had ample time to remedy the irregularities in the documentation submitted on the holders of the management board of the suspended party.
“In fact, the decision on the 26th of last month, I clearly mentioned that the National Federation Party vs the Supervisor of Elections in 2016, the High Court ruled in Paragraph 18 had held the registrar could simply notify the party of the breach and to immediately rectify under the law allowed the Registrar to suspend the party,” he said.
Mr Saneem also said the situation at the end of the 30-day period had actually worsened.