The highlight for October was the easing of travel restrictions after Fiji reached the targeted 80 per cent vaccination rate, but the month began with confusion over whether Fijians could use their existing voter identification cards in the next general election.
Former Supervisor of Elections and prominent lawyer Jon Apted said under the existing law, voter identification card was not an exclusive method for identifying a voter, and if a voter did not have a valid Voter ID, he or she could still vote if they presented an alternative form of ID that was accepted by the presiding officer.
In response Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem said Fijians would be allowed to vote in the next general election with whatever details they had registered with the Fijian Elections Office, however, the green voter cards had “expired” and to get a new blue one, Fijians had to produce their birth certificate.
Later in December, seven prominent women took the Government to court, challenging the Electoral (Registration of Voters) Act and the Interpretation Act requiring them to use their birth certificates names to be registered as voters. Also, 344 teachers were terminated because of the Government’s ‘no jab, no job’ policy.
OCTOBER 1 SUPERVISOR of Elections Mohammed Saneem says Fijians will be allowed to vote in the next general election with the details they are currently registered under with the Fijian Elections Office, however, he also said the green voter cards presently in use had “expired” and in order to get the new “blue coloured” cards, every Fijian would have to produce their birth certificate.
OCTOBER 2 FIJI Labour Party, Unity Fiji and Freedom Alliance sign a memorandum of understanding to set a platform for uniting the Opposition in the lead-up to the 2022 polls.
OCTOBER 3 PROMINENT lawyer and former Supervisor of Elections Jon Apted says under Section 51 of the Electoral Act, a voter identification card was one method of identifying a voter but if a voter did not have a valid Voter Identification Card, he or she could still vote if he or she produced an alternative ID that satisfied the presiding officer.
OCTOBER 4 POST-MORTEM examinations were not conducted on a COVID-19 patients who succumbed to the virus because of the increased risks to those performing the surgery , says Health Minister Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete.
OCTOBER 5 MORE than 60 people were taken into police custody after a brawl that broke out between youths from two neighbouring communities the Public Rental Board flats at Mead Rd and those from Sukanaivalu Rd, Suva.
OCTOBER 6 UNITY Fiji party leader Savenaca Narube says the $484 million that Government recovered from the 2020-2021 National Budget as stated in its 4th quarter appropriation statement is a clear indication that government ministries and entities had under-spent their budgetary allocations by not producing what was expected of them.
OCTOBER 10 HEAD of the Catholic Church in Fiji Archbishop Peter Loy Chong says he will look into ways of accommodating the spiritual lives of its members that chose not to be vaccinated – on the same day Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama announces that 80 per cent of Fijians were vaccinated.
OCTOBER 11 PRIME Minister Voreqe Bainimarama announces easing of travel restrictions with fully vaccinated allowed to travel to Vanua Levu, curfew reduced to 11pm to 4am.
OCTOBER 12 FORMER prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka launches The People’s Alliance party at Nawaka Village, Nadi
OCTOBER 14 EDUCATION Minister Premila Kumar says 344 teachers will be terminated because of the Government’s ‘no jab, no job’ policy.
OCTOBER 15 ANY future data released by the Fiji Islands Bureau of Statistics will have questions over its integrity and independence after the “political” termination of the former CEO Kemueli Naiqama, says the International Statistical Institute and the International Association for Official Statistics.
OCTOBER 16 GOVERNMENT holds bond debts worth $3.54 billion with the Fiji National Provident Fund and owes $924 million to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), states the 2020-2021 annual debt report released by the Economy Ministry.
OCTOBER 18 SODELPA leader Viliame Gavoka says Fiji has a rate of childhood stunting (low height for age) of eight per cent, childhood wasting (low weight for height) of six per cent, 37 to 50 per cent rates of anemia in children under five, and between 33 and 42 per cent in women aged 12 to 44, which were all caused by malnutrition.
OCTOBER 19 ECONOMY Ministry permanent secretary Shiri Gounder says the under-spending of $485 million in the 2020-2021 National Budget was due to tight control on public spending and the underutilisation of certain budgetary allocations.
OCTOBER 20 UNITY Fiji party leader, Savenaca Narube says Economy Ministry permanent secretary Shiri Gounder has not articulated what the “prevailing circumstances” were that led to the under-spending of $485 million in the 2020- 2021 National Budget.
OCTOBER 22 PARLIAMENT debates a motion by Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum for the House to approve the increase of a Government guarantee for Fiji Airways borrowings from $191.1 million to $241.1 million.
OCTOBER 24 NATIONAL Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad says Government’s plan to buy out minority shareholders in the Fiji Sugar Corporation at half a cent per share is “extortionary and hostile”.
OCTOBER 25 THE Fiji Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2021 designed by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) conducted to monitor the situation of women and children in Fiji found that 80.5 per cent of children between the age of 1 and 14 years were violently disciplined in the month prior to March-April this year.
OCTOBER 28 YEAR 12 and Year 13 students who begin classes next week Monday do not have to be vaccinated to enter their school premises, says the Education Ministry.
OCTOBER 29 THE People’s Alliance party leader Sitiveni Rabuka claims Social Democratic Liberal Party parliamentarians are ready to exit SODELPA and join him.
