acting Supervisor of Elections Ana Mataiciwa, chair of the Electoral Commission Barbara Malimali and FLP Leader Mahendra Chaudhry

There is still no clarification from the government and the Electoral Commission on why there are moves being taken to replace Ana Mataiciwa as the acting Supervisor of Elections.

The Fiji Labour Party has expressed its disappointment at this, claiming that a letter from the chair of the Electoral Commission Barbara Malimali was hand delivered to the Constitutional Offices Commission (COC) Tuesday.

It says this letter was requesting that Mataiciwa be replaced by a former chairman of the Electoral Commission as the substantive SoE.

FLP Leader Mahendra Chaudhry wrote to the Chair of the Electoral Commission seeking confirmation whether a letter had been sent to the CoC secretariat seeking to remove Mataiciwa.

The Commission chair has not responded to the letter.

Chaudhry says from what has transpired it seems that there are elements within government seeking to remove Mataiciwa.

He questions whether it is because she has referred complaints lodged against some senior Cabinet Ministers to FICAC.

The FLP leader says if this is so, this is outright interference with the due process particularly as the appointment had already been made according to the Prime Minister who is the Chair of CoC

FLP says this all is happening despite a media statement from Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka on January 27th, that the CoC had already decided on the substantive appointee, and he could not see why the announcement was being delayed.

We are attempting to get comments from Malimali, Mataciwa and government.