Ten women have complained to the Prime Minister about a delay in judgment from Chief Justice Kamal Kumar in a voting rights case heard before him last February.
In a letter to PM Sitiveni Rabuka the women said that in failing to deal promptly with the case, the CJ had affected the constitutional rights of about 100,000 women, as the case was about their having to change their names in order to register to vote for the 2022 General Election.
The complainants include Shamima Ali, Judy Compain, Elizabeth Fong, Bernadette Ganilau, Patricia Imrana Jalal, Seni Nabou, Nalini Singh, Shiromani Priscilla Singh, Salote Qalo and Makereta Waqavonono.
Seven women had sought constitutional redress from the courts against law changes requiring voters to be registered in accordance with the names on their birth certificates.
“The delay of justice has potentially and or effectively disenfranchised some or all of 100,000 women from voting, denying them the opportunity to exercise their constitutional right to vote, by failing to provide them with options which would have emanated from the constitutional redress decision,” the letter read.
“The decision ought to have been delivered within a reasonable time well before the cut-off dates for registration and the general election, as it concerned constitutionally guaranteed rights to vote of some or all of 100, 000 Fijian women.
“Eight months ensued with no decision delivered by the cut-off registration date on October 31, 2022.”
The women also complained about being “humiliated and embarrassed” when they were told by a court officer to “cover our legs and to sit “properly”.
They said that this was “treatment not meted out to any of the men in the courtroom, also sitting cross-legged”.
Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Siromi Turaga said he was in the West and would like to first sight the documents before responding. n Questions sent to the Chief Justice, Kamal Kumar, and the Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka remain unanswered when this edition went to press.
