PA Served With Search Warrant, Cries Foul

The People’s Alliance head­quarters at 9 Knolly Street was served with a search warrant by the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption on Wednesday.

PA deputy leader, Manoa Kami­kamica, said the officers from FI­CAC seized the party’s receipts and other documents relating to the sale of party merchandise.

Mr Kamikamica said under the advice of party lawyers, he as the deputy party leader co-operated with the three FICAC officers, who left with the documents.

“The meeting was respectful and cordial. This was just a few hours after our party leader Mr Sitiveni Rabuka was asked to visit the FI­CAC office,” he said."

He said more of the PA provision­al candidates and members were expected to be interviewed by FI­CAC in the coming days.

“Mr Rabuka told the nation on Wednesday, these acts are not only an assault on the PA, but it is ac­tually an assault on democracy in this country,” he said."

“In fact, yesterday’s seizure of party financial papers by FICAC continues, in our view, a disturbing trend."

“It just proves how badly the Fiji­an Elections Office is managing its business. FICAC had come directly to the headquarters of PA even though due process had not been followed,” he said.

No proof

In a press conference, Mr Kami­kamica said they had proof to show that Supervisor of Elections, Mo­hammed Saneem, was not investi­gating its merchandise sales.

“We had written to him, and two allegations he identified were Rock the Vote Fiji and the COVID-19 Ma­ternity Fund,” he said.

“There was no mention at all of party merchandise sales.

“This therefore begs the question, if FEO was not investigating us about merchandise sales: Then on whose instructions is the FICAC working on?” he asked.

He said the PA was still waiting for a reply from Mr Saneem on let­ter of complaint hand-delivered to his office at 3pm last Monday.

Section 112 of the Electoral Act states that any campaign material published and distributed by politi­cal parties must include print size easily legible.

It may also have the following in­formation like name and address of the person and organisation who authorised and paid for the materi­als to be printed. Also, it may have the name of the company that printed the material and their busi­nesses address and date of issue.

Story By: nacanieli@fijisun.com.fj