The Fijian Elections Office has today referred Awadh Narayan Sharma to Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption for a breach of the Electoral Act.
Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem says Sharma breached section 116 (4) of the Electoral Act.
Saneem says the National Federation Party and Sharma have both published and used language that incites hatred and discriminated against a person based on their gender.
“We have referred Mr Awadh Narayan Sharma of the National Federation Party for breaching Section 116 (4) of the Electoral Act, which states that any political party or candidate for election to Parliament and any person representing or acting under the direction of, any political party or any candidate must not use any language or publish any document that seeks to threaten or incite hatred or violence of hatred in any form against any other person or group of persons. This is in relation to Mr Awadh Narayan’s comments for a person who has made the complaint that the person’s comments target a particular community.”
Meanwhile, Saneem says they have also referred a Facebook user for falsely promoting a wrong candidate number.
He says this is critical election misinforming and hence this action is for investigation against this person.
Saneem is further reminding all political parties and their representatives to ensure that they comply with all relevant laws in place when undertaking campaign for the 2022 General Election.
