A man charged with committing electoral offences has pleaded guilty and was convicted as charged by the Suva Magistrates Court.

Rajnil Pratap Sobha pleaded guilty to all the three counts of false declaration on an application for voter registration, false declaration on an application for replacement of Electronic Voter Registration Card and applying to be registered as a voter on more than one occasion.

He was charged by the Fiji Independent Commission against Corruption in June this year under the Electoral Act of 2014 and the Electoral Registration of Voters Act of 2012.

In July 2016 in Ba, Sobha knowingly made false declarations by stating that his name was Rajneel Rajiv Malhotra and used a false date of birth when submitting his application to the Fiji Elections Office officials.

For the second count, in June 2017 in Nadi, the accused provided the same false information to obtain a replacement card.

Regarding the third count, he applied to be registered as a voter under the name of Rajnil Pratap Sobha, in Suva, whilst already having been registered as
Rajneel Rajiv Malhotra in October 2017.

The matter was adjourned to 22 October 2018 for the filing of sentencing and mitigation submissions.