Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama stays forward within the newest election tally however opposition events are nonetheless expressing religion in toppling his FijiFirst authorities.
FijiFirst has garnered 42 p.c of the vote from the outcomes of two-thirds of polling stations uploaded as of Saturday night.
The opposition Individuals’s Alliance led by former prime minister and coup chief Sitiveni Rabuka now sits on 36 p.c.
The Nationwide Federation Celebration has virtually 9 p.c of the vote whereas the Social Democratic Liberal Celebration has simply above 5.
The opposite 5 political events stay beneath the 5 p.c threshold of votes required to qualify for a seat within the expanded 55-member parliament.
Bainimarama – who got here to energy after instigating a coup in 2006 – has a private vote of 29 per cent in Fiji’s single constituency whereas Rabuka is sitting at virtually 16 per cent.
Rabuka mentioned he stays hopeful he’ll have the ability to type a coalition authorities.
A closing tally is due on Sunday.
Taken into custody
The fallout from Rabuka being taken into custody and questioned by the police on Friday evening after writing to the army commander asking for an intervention within the election has continued.
He mentioned he was not arrested or charged.
The celebration’s normal secretary was additionally taken in for questioning as was Methodist Church Reverend Ili Vunisuwai who additionally wrote to the president and military commander and expressed issues concerning the integrity of the election.
Rabuka informed reporters on Friday that the police questioned him about his statements on the election, notably in relation to social media posts.
“It is an occupational hazard for a political opposition in Fiji,” he mentioned when requested if he thought the developments constituted political interference.
He mentioned it could not be a coup as a result of the military wouldn’t be operating the federal government.
Main Common Jone Kalouniwai declined to become involved, saying utilizing the army within the electoral course of can be unconstitutional and he maintained religion within the system.
Opposition events additionally doubled down on claims of voting irregularities and former prime minister and Labor Celebration chief Mahendra Chaudhry alleged doable fraud.
Chaudhry mentioned he had individuals prepared to signal statutory declarations saying they voted for him at a specific sales space he recorded no ballots at when counted.
Suspicions and accusations
“I’m personally assured lots of of my votes have been hijacked or disappeared,” he mentioned.
“That is why I’m alleging doable fraud.”
Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem rubbished the declare saying he was nonetheless ready for Chaudhry to supply proof from when he alleged fraud in 2014 and 2018.
He mentioned he’d acquired one grievance of that nature however the girl was trying on the mistaken polling station.
Nationwide Federation Celebration chief Biman Prasad mentioned his celebration’s observers have been informed to depart the poll counting enviornment final evening by police regardless of FijiFirst members nonetheless being there.
Saneem mentioned all political celebration observers got two to 3 hours discover to depart as a result of counting had completed.
Cyber glitch
He mentioned correct authorized avenues needs to be adopted with recourse obtainable to aggrieved events however urged them to attend till the ultimate outcomes are launched.
Opposition events nonetheless have issues over a glitch that induced the election outcomes app to be taken offline on election evening, with a considerable change to outcomes when it got here again on-line.
Saneem mentioned votes had been mismatched to candidates once they have been uploaded to the outcomes app, inflicting some candidates to initially present unusually excessive numbers.
Saneem mentioned whereas the app was down, a considerable variety of polling stations reported their outcomes which is what up to date the general tally.
He mentioned there was no downside with the database as ballots are manually counted and verified. Further safeguards have been put in place after the glitch.
The Multinational Observer Group says it has not noticed “any important irregularities or points throughout pre-polling, postal voting or election day voting”.
The group’s interim report famous that the app isn’t used to rely votes, solely to publish outcomes.
This text was made doable by the Melbourne Press Membership’s Michael Gordon Journalism Fellowship Program.
-AAP
