WATI TALEBULA

SUVA, NASINU, NAUSORI

Police Commissioner Brigadier-General Sitiveni Qiliho has quashed rumours of disturbance and instability.

This was on the minds of some people as supermarkets experienced a rush by people to stock up.

Major suburban shopping centres in and around the capital city had more than the usual number of shoppers for a typical public holiday. People stocked up on household and food items.

People were also stocking up for Tropical Disturbance TD02F, which brought rain and strong winds to the country.

As a result of bad weather preventing accessibility 23 polling venues were closed, to be reopened for new polling when the weather cleared.

Brigadier-General Qiliho said Police officers would ensure that polling was smooth.

He said everything was under control.

“Election operations and routine operations have been generally quiet,” Brigadier-General Qiliho said.

Voting adjourned (Details on Page 4)

He was also asked about areas where voting had been adjourned because of bad weather and its effect on Police operations.

“That means longer operation for us, especially for the officers who have to look after those polling stations and will wait for the decision to come through from the Supervisor of Elections on how we continue operation in those areas,” Brigadier-General Qiliho said.

“As of now going into the counting process and that is what we are focus on now from the policing perspective from all the polling stations where the provisional counting starts now.

“Otherwise routine operations continue and we will patrol key communications and electricity infrastructure.”

Election complaints

Brigadier-General Qiliho said the force referred issues from Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to the Fiji Independent Commission against Corruption (FICAC) in regards to election complaints.

Under the Electoral Act these are serious offences.

The complaints involve alleged voter impersonation.

It is understood that a member of the public claimed at a Police station that somebody had voted under his name while a second complaint had to do with an attempt to reregister a voter’s name on the electoral roll.

The second complainant said this reregistration attempt was made after she already registered on the electoral roll.

FICAC confirmed receiving two complaints from Police and six from the Supervisor of Election.

Edited by Epineri Vula

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