The ball is in their court. This was the response from Acting Supervisor of Election Ana Mataiciwa on whether FijiFirst parliamentarians would sit in Parliament next week.
She said FijiFirst had to submit their audited reports by this week if its MPs wanted to sit in Parliament next week.
“If they do not submit by the 15th of June, then we give them an extra 30 days which is the 15th of July and if still they don’t provide us the audited accounts, then we’ll have to proceed with the deregistration,” she said.
“So deregistration, that’s when we’ll write to them and ask them to show cause, why they should not be deregistered. The response will determine whether they will be deregistered or not.
“In worst case, if they do become deregistered, the members of parliament under the Political Parties Act, they are covered. So they have options either they run as independent candidate or they join the other political parties.”
Ms Mataiciwa said in a worst-case scenario, if FF members choose to resign from Parliament, then FEO would be mandated to run a by-election to fill the vacant seats.
She said New Generation Party had submitted its audited reports whereas All People’s Party, We Unite Fiji Party and FijiFirst had yet to submit theirs.
“Apart from FijiFirst, the rest of the other three parties we’ve been corresponding, and they have informed us that they will comply by the 15th of June.
“They have stated that they will try and comply we’ll just have to wait till 15th June to see if they’ll submit it or not.
“The ones that we have received we have confirmed that they are all according to the FIA (Fiji Institute of Accountants) standard.”
