Saneem clarifies on polling venues

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Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem. Picture: FILE

POLLING venues could be changed, says Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem.

During a press conference last Friday, he said the Fiji Elections Office “is running this election and since the Writ has not been issued yet, my director operations can exercise her role and move polling venues in between the FEO administrative areas as she finds fit”.

“Political parties’ interest lies in the part where the voter is — whether the voter, he or she, is in her correct venue, whether the voters name is listed correctly next to their voter number and whether the venue itself is the most appropriate venue for that voter,” he said.

“Whether my Western Division office looks after a polling venue in Nabouwalu or my Eastern Division office looks after a polling venue in Nadi is the responsibility of the director operations of the FEO, not the political parties,” he added.

Mr Saneem said the naming convention and assignment to areas was FEO’s prerogative under the Electoral laws.

He also called on political parties to use their own campaign mechanisms to attract party agents instead of using his photograph.

“First and foremost, the Fijian Elections Office (FEO) is apolitical so attempts to use the Supervisor of Elections photo to get party agents would probably not work out very well because you will get politically neutral people and so parties should use their own campaign mechanisms to attract agents instead of directly using my photo,” Mr Saneem said.

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