23 Feb 2005

Fiji Electoral Commission won't speculate on Ministerial visit to the Gulf

9:01 pm on 23 February 2005

The chairman of Fiji's Electoral Commission, Graham Leung, says they will take action if any evidence emerges that the government transgresses the country's electoral laws.

Mr Leung's comments follow a complaint to the commission by the Labour Party leader, Mahendra Chaudhry, about a forthcoming visit to Iraq and Kuwait by the Labour Minister Kenneth Zinck and other officials.

While there, Mr Zinck is due to meet representatives of the nearly 2000 Fijians who work for security companies.

But Mr Chaudhry has alleged the visit is aimed at registering voters and campaigning among the mostly indigenous Fijian security workers.

However Mr Leung says he has seen no evidence of this and it would be speculative to presume Mr Zinck will be doing that.

"If he makes a call that for political reasons that has to do with a governing party, that he wishes to visit migrant workers from this country working in another country, then that is a political call. Now we will cross that bridge when we need to, if there is evidence presented to the commission from a third party that there have been possible trangressions or breaches of Fiji's electoral laws."