Go to SOE: Commander

written to the RFMF Commander expressing their dissatisfaction of the counting process after the reported technical glitch of the Fijian Elections Office (FEO) results app.

The glitch, as explained on Thursday by the Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem, was postponed on Wednesday night after they had cited certain discrepancies, where one candidate received more votes than the party leader. Based on the discrepancies, they had to pull out the system to check what went wrong. This has been rectified.

The Commander also confirmed that he had not received any correspondence from PA leader Mr Rabuka.

He said he was told that the said letter was emailed to an account he was unable to access throughout the year.

“I wish to reassure the people of Fiji that the RFMF will not respond to Rabuka’s insistence or any political party, that we intervene under our responsibilities from Section 131. 2 of the 2013 Constitution,” Major-General Kalouniwai said.

“The RFMF, as an institution, will put its trust in the electoral process. The constitutional responsibility of the RFMF section 131.2 does not make any reference to intervening or getting involved with the electoral processes or management of voting or counting of votes with the assistance of the military.”

He said using the military in any form during the electoral process was unconstitutional.

“As such, the RFMF would leave it in the good hands of those responsible for the electoral process under the 2013 Constitution.

“The 2013 Constitution does provide a mechanism where parties can seek redress or challenge the results of the election,” he said.

“In this instance, I urge any dispute with reference to the electoral process be referred to the Supervisor of Elections, the Electoral Commission and the Court of Disputed Returns. These are the various organisations that do deal with all electoral matters.”