FijiFirst Members of Parliament (MPs) have been excluded from participating in any Parliament-related activities and neither will they be paid after the party was suspended by the Fijian Elections Office (FEO) on Wednesday.

This was confirmed in a release from the office of the Speaker of the Fiji Parliament after receiving information from the acting registrar of Political Parties.

It comes after the party’s failure to comply with with Section 26(2) of the Political Parties Act 2013.

Section 26(2) requires parties to provide to the Registrar (of Political Parties), within three months after the end of each financial year, the record of accounts of its income, expenditure, asset and liabilities audited by an auditor certified by the Fiji Institute of Accountants.

All political parties were given a one-month extension to submit all accounts and other disclosures by April 29, 2023.

FijiFirst has been suspended for 30 days and has 60 days to remedy the breach/contravention or face deregistration as a Political Party.

The other political parties which were suspended along are: All People’s Party, New Generation Party and We Unite Fiji party.

When contacted today at 4pm, FijiFirst general secretary, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said the party members were in a meeting.

It is understood that the meeting will iron out the compliance issues as stated by the acting Supervisor of Elections, Ana Mataiciwa, on Wednesday.

Entitlements Withdrawn

In light of the suspension of the registration of the FijiFirst Party, all 24 members are not entitled to take part in the proceedings of Parliament or any committee of Parliament for the duration of the suspension of the registration of the FijiFirst Party.

This also means that all 24 MPs are precluded from participating in all related activities such as representing Parliament in meetings, workshops, seminars, conferences, assemblies, and so forth, for the period of suspension until the suspension of the registration is lifted.

In addition, the MPs are not entitled to any remuneration from Parliament for the duration of the suspension.

The PA, SODELPA

Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA) and The People’s Alliance (PA) have been given an additional 30 days to submit its list of sources of funds to FEO.

The only political party in compliance is the National Federation Party.

Read more in the Fiji Sun tomorrow on FijiFirst’s meeting update.

Story by: inoke.rabonu@fijisun.com.fj