Electoral Review Commission member Dr Wadan Narsey would not make any further comment regarding the electoral review report compiled by his team and submitted to the office of the Acting Attorney General.
Dr Narsey, in an email yesterday, said he would not comment on issues raised at the Dialogue Fiji panel discussion in which a participant raised concerns about Dr Narsey’s rights to reveal details of the report when the Government has not released it.
On this issue, Acting Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Siromi Turaga said a strongly worded letter had been sent to Dr Narsey after he publicly released recommendations from the Electoral Reform Commission report.
He highlighted this in the Dialogue Fiji panel discussion held in Suva on Thursday while responding to a question from Investment Consultant Sundeep Singh.
Mr Singh asked what actions had been taken against Mr Narsey for publicly releasing the recommendations from the Electoral Reform Commission report.
“Who gave the authority to Mr Narsey to speak about the commission’s report, which is supposed to be the Government, and now we are talking about forming another commission?” Mr Singh questioned.
“One Commission has made a blunder with the COI, and now we have a second commission which is creating another blunder of coming up with the speculation prematurely speculating about what has been done in the electoral reform.
“So, that is very, very bad.”
In response, Mr Turaga stated that Mr Narsey’s actions were “totally out of order”.
“A strongly worded letter has been written to Professor Wadan Narsey,” he said.
“It is within the terms of the contract regarding confidentiality.
“That was totally out of order. It is still within the public, and the government has not made a decision.”
He said according to the contract, commission members were obligated to maintain confidentiality regarding the report’s content.
“They were paid to deliver the report with the Bills.
“Then that’s where the Government comes in, into Cabinet, then into Parliament. So, let’s not make judgment of what has been said. Government is yet to make a decision, let me clear that.”
