Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem has dismissed a complaint made by the National Federation Party (NFP) on September 13, 2022, to the Fijian Elections Office (FEO).
According to the FEO, the NFP complaint related to alleged SMS text messages received by certain individuals during the recent Constitution Day public holiday and other claims of weaponisation and proliferation of sponsored fake news on Facebook, particularly during the 48-hour blackout period of the 2018 General Election.
It stated that following further clarification, Mr Saneem noted the NFP only provided evidence of the text messages being sent to Professor Biman Prasad and not any other person or group of persons that would have allowed him to take the next course of action to determine the source and so forth.
“Regarding the claims of sponsored fake news during the 2018 General Election, the SoE noted that the NFP used hypothetical scenarios from 2018 and further stresses that the FEO is now empowered under Section 144A to remove false statements on any platform.
“The Centre for Credible Election Information will also be providing various clarifications and highlighting instances in relation to disinformation and misinformation on social media pages.
“Given that the NFP failed to substantiate its complaint with cogent evidence, the same has been dismissed.”
