FijiFirst general secretary Aiyaz Sayed- Khaiyum last night presented to members of the media gazettes dating back to the 1990s, which revealed who the Ministers responsible for Elections were before him.

Last week, Mr Sayed- Khaiyum was labelled a liar by The People’s Alliance deputy leader, Manoa Kamikamica, who claimed that the late Laisenia Qarase was never the elections minister.

However, yesterday Mr Sayed- Khaium presented evidence of Mr Qarase, Mahendra Chaudhry and Sitiveni Rabuka being minister’s responsible for elections during their terms.

“I think Manoa is obviously either too ignorant or is deliberately obfuscating,” Mr Sayed- Khaiyum said.

“Obviously, he’s not speaking to all the lawyers that are around in The People’s Alliance and indeed everybody else that is making those allegations.

“I have with me here this afternoon the ministerial assignments when Laisenia Qarase was the Prime Minister.

“And it says here, Minister Assignment, 23rd June 2006, departments that come under the Prime Minister’s office are the Office of the Supervisor of Elections, the Constituency Boundaries Commission in those days and the Electoral Act.”

“Unfortunately, what is really disconcerting is certain media organisations continue to simply parrot anything that’s said by one or two political parties and run it as gospel truth when really it isn’t.”

He said the gazette notices were available in any library or law firm.

“You can go to any law library, you can go to the archives, and it’s available there.”

The Gazettes

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum also read out the ministerial assignments that were stated in the gazette.

“2001 Ministerial assignment, Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, department it says office of the Supervisor of Elections, Constituency Boundaries Commission, Electoral Commission, Office of the Prime Minister and which law comes under him Electoral Act 1998.

“2001 again, when we had the overthrow of the Chaudhry government, and we had this interim government put in place, again the Electoral Act, office of the Supervisor of Elections, Constituency Boundaries Commission, Electoral Commission.”

“Going back even further 1999, Mahendra Chaudhry was making all these claims of conflict of interest, when he was Prime Minister again ministerial assignment, Office of the Supervisor of Elections, Constituency Boundaries Commission, and Electoral Commission, which act comes under the office of Prime Minister, Electoral Act.

“Let’s go back even further, 1997, Office of the Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, his ministerial assignment, Office of the Supervisor of Elections, Electoral decree 1991.”

He said in those days, the Supervisor of Elections Office accounts were done through the Prime Minister’s Office and not independent as it is today.

“1994 ministerial assignment, Prime Minister. Who was the Prime Minister in 1994? Sitiveni Rabuka, Manoa’s leader.

“Let’s go back to 1992, who was the then Prime Minister, it was Sitiveni Rabuka, de- partments on the PM’s, office of the Supervisor of Elections, Electoral decree in 1991 under him.”

Response to The PA

He added that Rabuka was participating in the upcoming General Election and his deputy leader did not know the ministerial assignments he had held in his term.

“It is in the gazette and signed by whoever was the president then.

“And in fact, Manoa Kamikamica probably should have stayed in the private sector, owes us an apology for calling us a liar. We don’t make these statements willy nilly. We actually make statements based on facts.”

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