Former military officers Seremaia Tuiteci and Ratu Ifereimi Buaserau were among the 12 nominated candidates rejected by the Fijian Elections Office (FEO).
Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem said this while announcing the FEO had approved 342 of the 356 nominations received for the General Election.
Mr Tuiteci was a nominee of the Social Democratic Liberal Party while Mr Buaserau’s name was submitted by Unity Fiji.
Mr Saneem said FEO had accepted all of FijiFirst’s 55 nominations and the five names submitted by the New Generation Party.
Mr Tuiteci and Mohammed Khan from the National Federation Party (NFP) “did not meet the requirements of section 23 (4) (g) – a criminal conviction meaning they were previously convicted of an offence for which the maximum penalty is 12 months or more”.
Other nominations rejected because of criminal convictions were Fiji Labour Party(FLP) candidates Nawal Chand, Shaireen Nisha, NFP’s Sekonaia Rabukaduadua, The People’s Alliance’s (PA)Daniel Urai, We Unite Fiji candidate Samuela Nabore and All People’s Party’s Apimeleki Lalavanua.
Mr Saneem said Amjad Ali, Jalesi Nakarawa of PA and We Unite Fiji candidate Peter Raj did not meet the requirements of 24 (4) (c) meaning they had to be ordinary resident in Fiji for a period of 18 months to two years.
Aside from two independent candidates, PA has 55 candidates, SODELPA 54, FLP 45, Unity Fiji 38, NFP 54, We Unite Fiji 20, All Peoples Party submitted 14 .
Meanwhile, the objections and appeals period closed at 4pm yesterday.
Fiji Electoral Commission chairman Mukesh Nand said they received 10 appeals and two objections.
He said the decisions of the appeals and objections would be relayed in due course.
