Indonesia Stands by 2014 Poll
Carnadi applauded the Fijian Elections Office for introducing a mobile application through which members of the public can check updates of the election results
The world’s largest archipelagic democracy, Indonesia, is standing by the result of Fiji’s 2014 General Election, describing it as free and fair. This is the view of Indonesian Ambassador to Fiji Benjamin Scott Carnadi in response to claims on social media that the 2014 General Election was rigged. Indonesia was a co-leader of the Multinational Observer Group (MOG) monitoring the conduct of the 2014 election.
The other co-leaders of the MOG were India and Australia. Speaking to the Fiji Sun Mr Carnadi stressed that the 2014 General Election was transparent. “Those are claims. As we have participated in the observer group I think the election was organised well,” he said.
“In democracy there is always room to improve. It has to be a homegrown progress in building democracy. It is the Fijian people who know what’s best, the style and type of democracy that is suitable for your people and your country.
“Of course, there are certain values that have to be met and these are transparency, openness and credibility that has to be maintained and, of course, the prevailing legislations and the constitution.
“We will take part in the observer group (for 2018) … as far as we see that the election is conducted in a free and fair manner based on the prevailing law of the constitution of Fiji.”
Mr Carnadi applauded the Fijian Elections Office for introducing a mobile application through which members of the public can check updates of the election results. “In a democracy there have to be checks and balances, so I think in every democracy like Indonesia there is always an opportunity for the people to observe what has happened in an election and to have an opinion,” he said.
“This is part of democracy. You need to present evidence as proof to claims and for this I think the best response is to keep the election a free, fair and transparent process. “I have personally seen what has happened with the preparation and have been invited by the Fijian Elections Office when they launched their application.
“I think it is a very transparent and very open arrangement that the Fijian Government is making for this upcoming election. “Even in Indonesia we don’t have that kind of app where you can monitor the votes or who gets how many votes.”
The MOG provided 92 accredited observers for the 2014 General Election.