Mohammed Saneem [Source: Fijian Elections Office/Facebook]

The Supervisor of Elections has dismissed a complaint made by the National Federation Party last Tuesday.

The NFP complaint related to alleged text messages received by certain individuals during the recent Constitution Day public holiday and other claims of weaponization and proliferation of sponsored fake news on Facebook particularly during the 48-hour black out period of the 2018 General Election.

Following further clarification by Supervisor Mohammed Saneem from NFP, it was noted that the NFP only provided evidence of the text messages being sent to Professor Biman Prasad and not any other person or group of persons which would have allowed the SoE to take the next course of action to determine the source and so forth.

Regarding the claims of sponsored fake news during the 2018 General Election, Saneem noted that the NFP used hypothetical scenarios from 2018.

He stresses that the FEO is now empowered under Section 144A to remove false statements on any platform.

Saneem says the Centre for Credible Election Information will also be providing various clarifications and highlighting instances in relation to disinformation and misinformation on social media pages.

Given that the NFP failed to substantiate its complaint with cogent evidence, Saneem says the same has been dismissed.