Speaker of the House, Ratu Epeli Nailatikau.

Opposition MP Niko Nawaikula has six more days to make an application to the Court of Disputed Returns to question or challenge the validity of his seat being declared vacant.

Speaker of the House, Ratu Epeli Nailatikau informed parliament this morning that Nawaikula’s seat is vacant under Section 63 of the Constitution and written notification was provided to him on Friday.

Ratu Epeli says the removal of Nawaikula’s name by the Supervisor of Elections from the Register of Voters, has removed his right to be nominated as a candidate to parliament.

“Section 56 2(b) provides that a person maybe a candidate for Election to parliament only if the person is registered on the registrar of voters. These provisions essentially provides that a seat in parliament becomes vacant if the honourable member who holds that seat ceases to have the right to be nominated as a candidate to parliament and the honourable member ceases to have that right when he or she is not registered on the register.”

The Speaker adds he received a letter from the Supervisor of Elections on July 20th serving as the official notice to parliament that Opposition MP Niko Nawaikula has been removed from the Registrar of Voters pursuant to Section 12 of the Electoral Registration of Voters Act 2012.

The Fijian Elections Office referred Nawaikula to the Fiji Independent Commission against Corruption in June after Nawaikula said in parliament that although he is commonly known as Niko

Nawaikula, that’s not the name on his birth certificate and therefore his name on the VoterCard is incorrect.

The FEO at the time said FICAC is to investigate whether Nawaikula provided a false declaration to a registration official when he made an application to replace his VoterCard on 22 June 2017.