Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem.[Source: FEO Facebook page]

In an embarrassing about-turn today the Fiji Labour Party has removed a social media post it had published yesterday claiming the Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem had been forced to resign by the president.

Despite the government denying the resignation claims on the weekend, the Fiji Labour Party went ahead with its Facebook post saying a farewell party had been held for Saneems farewell from the elections office.

The Labour leader Mahendra Chaudhry was adamant yesterday that his Facebook post about Saneem’s resignation was correct but after being warned of possible action under the electoral act by Saneem today Chaudhry quickly got rid of the post.

Nationwide speculation about the Supervisor of Elections resignation since yesterday’s Fiji Labour Party Facebook post was quickly called out this morning by the man at the receiving end of the false information.

“Those are false information and we will consider taking some actions We looking at one of the first notices under section 144 of the Electoral act.”

The elections supervisor later issued a Notice under Section 144A(2) of the Electoral Act for the labour party to remove its Facebook post titled ‘BREAKING NEWS Supervisor of Elections forced to RESIGN’ with immediate effect.

Saneem warned the FLP saying failing to remove the post he could refer the Party to court for prosecution for contravention of the said Electoral Act.

Despite being adamant about standing by its social media post yesterday, party leader Mahendra Chaudhry took immediate action after Saneem’s warning today.

“I confirm that we’ve removed the post and we’ve advised the Supervisor of Election of the same but we are in term of Section 144A(3) will request the Electoral Commission to review the decision of the Supervisor.”

Asked if he is concerned about reports of his alleged resignation was a leaked by one of his own staff members, Saneem says it was unprofessional behavior by a certain senior journalist who had gathered unreliable information.

“It goes to the ethics of the journalist who uses information from unethical sources and published it and I think you should go and interview that person in relation to this point.”

When pressed by the media on whether he did resign and whether his resignation was received by the Attorney-General, Saneem said there was a need to understand facts.

“The Attorney General does not receive resignations, please check who is the appointing authority.”

Saneem says its incredible the extent to which the Fiji Labour Party has gone to fabricate something and then make it publicly accessible with such a high rate of publication despite fully knowing it to be false and lies.