A total of seven objections and one appeal against candidates for the General Election, have been filed with the Fijian Elections Office as of 4 o’clock this afternoon.

Electoral Commission Chair Suresh Chandra says the appeals and objections period for the 2018 General Election is now closed.

Chandra says they will sit tomorrow and deliberate on all the objections and appeal.

However, representative from the National Federation Party Sharveen Chaudhary walked into the FEO office 32 seconds after 4pm to file an objection.

Chandra says that Chaudhary did not enter the room before 4pm, where all the objections and appeals were being made.

The Electoral Chair told Chaudhary that they could not accept his objection even though he was a few seconds late.

Under the Electoral Act 2014, it says that upon the receipt of objections, the Electoral Commission must arrange to provide a copy of the objection to the candidate whose nomination is being objected to and must provide the candidate with an opportunity to respond to the objection within such time as determined by the Electoral Commission.

The Electoral Commission must make a decision on the objection with written reasons, as soon as possible and in any event within 3 days upon receipt of the objection.

Upon making a decision on the objection, the Electoral Commission must immediately notify its decision to the person objecting, and the candidate those nomination is objected to and the Supervisor as soon as possible but no later than 12 pm on the day following its decision.