17 Oct 2002

Fiji municipal elections free and fair says elections office

12:04 pm on 17 October 2002

Fiji's Elections Office says allegations by the Fiji Labour party over vote rigging in the municipal elections have not been substantiated.

Kameli Koto, deputy supervisor elections, says the FLP should have lodged complaints that candidates were registering voters outside their boundaries prior to the elections.

Mr Koto says the FLP did not object when the provisional roll was printed so the final roll with the names of voters will stand.

"When the provisional was printed we had two weeks for objections. The returning officers expected all people who'd like to file complaint against people on the roll to come up such objections during those the two weeks. They then printed the final roll which was the roll that was used during the local government elections."

Mr Koto says he believes the municipal elections were free and fair.