Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem and Fiji Labour Party Leader, Mahendra Chaudhry. [file photo]

Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem says he had hoped to see Fiji Labour Party Leader, Mahendra Chaudhry attend the first meeting with political parties yesterday.

During the virtual meeting, Saneem took the parties through a comprehensive preparation plan for the 2022 General Election.

The National Federation Party, FijiFirst, Social Democratic Liberal Part, Unity Fiji and The People’s Alliance attended the meeting but the Fiji Labour Party was notably absent.

Saneem says Chaudhry had written to the Fijian Elections Office saying he would not attend and demanded that the FEO send him everything in writing.

The Supervisor of Elections stresses this was a workshop and it is not practical to send anything in writing.

“We would have hoped that Mr Chaudhry himself would have attended this meeting so that he could learn about the management of the Voter List, management of the Polling Venue because we found that on many occasions he himself has made some incorrect statements about these processes.”

Saneem is hoping the FLP team will view the meeting on the FEO Facebook page to keep abreast with activities in the lead up to the 2022 General Election.

“The majority of the parties attended this workshop – it was also live on Facebook and we also extended the ability to other people who wanted to participate in the process to come and tune in. Mr Chaudhry and his team could possibly go back to the Facebook feed and have a look at what we have embarked into the parties and possibly learn from there.”

When contacted by FBC News yesterday afternoon, Chaudhry said he has written to the Fijian Elections Office and we should contact them to get an update on the FLP’s non-participation.