19 Sep 2007

New Fiji election not public, alleges vote-rigging

3:14 pm on 19 September 2007

The Fiji Human Rights Commission says the commission of inquiry report into Fiji's 2006 general election has not yet been made public.

Fiji TV reported last night that it obtained a copy of the report based on evidence given by 59 individuals and organisations.

It reported evidence of irregularities, bias, corruption, vote buying and vote rigging, and is also critical of the Elections Office.

The commission says copies of the report have been given only to the state, the SDL party, and the Fiji Labour Party for review.

The University of the South Pacific's Dr Alumita Durutalo has been an election observer since the 1990s.

She says observers from the EU, Pacific Islands Forum, Commonwealth and the USP deemed the last election in Fiji to be free and fair.

"The election was fair in terms of the international observers coming here and the report they gave and also the report prepared by the USP team. The big thing is that there was no protest after those or that report were publicly declared. But now they are coming up with new allegations that the elections was rigged and so on and so forth. That's the problem right now."

Dr Alumita Durutalo