Fiji Sun

The Speaker of Parliament, Dr Jiko Luveni, will not interfere in a matter regarding the Na­tional Federation Party (NFP) and a Government Member of Parliament.

A letter is understood to have been submitted by the NFP whip, Prem Sin­gh, in regards to an alleged incident at the Constitution Avenue carpark out­side Parliament on Thursday May 17.

The letter was from a NFP-Youth wing member alleging that he was threatened by a Government MP when he was confronted because of a cer­tain social media post of how they were treated during their Parliamen­tary submissions on Human Rights Treaties.

However, Dr Luveni, in an email re­sponse to questions sent to her, said: “As rightfully pointed out in the let­ter from the NFP, the comments were made outside Parliament.

“Given that the Fiji Police Force is now involved, it would be ‘inappropri­ate’ for the Speaker to interfere fur­ther on the matter.”

Dr Luveni said she had perused the materials submitted by the NFP whip Mr Singh, regarding the alleged inci­dent.

Standing Order 70(1) provides that the Speaker maintains order and deco­rum in Parliament.

Moreover, Standing Orders 62, 75, 76 and 79, to name a few, are notable pro­visions in the Standing Orders which allows the Speaker to address disor­derly conduct in the Parliament.

She said: “Essentially, these Standing Orders refer to a member speaking either in Parliament, or a committee of the Parliament. These are the ‘pro­ceedings in Parliament’ to which vari­ous protections apply”.

With reference to the submission by the NFP, the allegation is related to comments.

Edited by Percy Kean

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