June 28 Decision Day for FijiFirst

The Registrar of Political Parties Ana Mataiciwa says they will now have to wait for the June 28 deadline to determine the future of the FijiFirst party.

The party faces deregistration as the Registrar of Political Parties await a response on directives to amend the party constitution to include a dispute resolution clause.

“Under the Political Parties Act, at the moment the FFP still exists. We had actually given them a notice on May 10 to amend their constitution and let it align with the Political Parties Act,” Ms Mataiciwa said.

“That notice still stands until June 28,” she said.

“We’ll have to wait for June 28, first cross that bridge and then well be able to advise our stakeholders the next step for Political Parties.”

She said with regards to the letter addressed to the Speaker that was under their jurisdiction.

“The decision is on the Speaker to make, I’m just focusing on the directives that were issued by me that is due on June 28, she said.

“The party is now facing deregistration as party office holders, founding members resigned earlier this week limiting any chances of an amendment to the FijiFirst constitution as per the directive.

“We must remember that the Notice was issued on May 30, and that was when office holders were in existence,” Ms Mataiciwa said.

“The fact they have resigned, that is for the Party to deal with, for us were going to go in with the Notice.

“The notice was issued on May 30, and had a deadline of 4pm on June 25.

“If they don’t comply, then the directive they have chosen to go with, that’s going to be a problem that they have to deal with.

“As for us, the notice is there.”

She added that as far as the 17 MPs who went against party directive was concerned, that was the jurisdiction of the Speaker.

“He had already informed us that he had sought some legal opinion so we’re going to respect that.”

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