The legal opinion of the National Federation Party was once again ruled to be flawed after a complaint it filed against FijiFirst was thrown out by the Electoral Commission.

NFP’s registered officer, Dalip Kumar, wrote to the Electoral Commission last month claiming that the billboards put up by FijiFirst were in breach of the Electoral Act.

Mr Kumar claimed that three sections of the Act – 112 (1), 112 (3) and 117 were breached by the ruling FijiFirst.

FijiFirst party general secretary Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum schooled NFP on how their complaint had no merit and provided a three paragraph response to NFP’s three page long complaint.

In response to the complaint, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said: “NFP’s complaint is misplaced as the allegation is premised on an incorrect reading of the law.

“Suffice to say the writ of elections has not been issued and therefore as per the relevant law it is not a campaign period and consequently the billboards in question do not fall within the definition of campaign material. Therefore the rules governing campaign material do not apply to the billboards.

“However, notwithstanding the fact that the billboards in question do not fall within the definition of campaign material, you will note that the billboards have been placed in locations that were not specifically disallowed by the Fijian Elections Office in the previous campaign period in 2014.”

In its ruling on the issue, the Electoral Commission through its chairman Suresh Chandra stated that the complaint had no merit.

Mr Chandra said Section 2 of the Act “defines campaign as an act done for or in connection with promoting or opposing, directly or indirectly, a registered political party or the election of a candidate or candidates, or any act done for the purposes of influencing, directly or indirectly, the voting at an election, through any medium.”

He further stated: “Following the perusal of the Electoral Act, the Electoral Commission finds that the requirements of sections 112 and 1117 apply following the announcement of an Election or a by-election.”

Mr Chandra has reminded NFP that currently there is no election in progress and as such the Electoral Commission finds that sections 112 and 117 have not been breached.

Edited by Naisa Koroi

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