SUVA lawyer Tanya Waqanika has confirmed she was questioned by FICAC yesterday over a social media post she made in April last year.
Ms Waqanika said she was taken in after Supervisor of Elections Ana Mataiciwa referred the complaint, lodged by former SODELPA general secretary Viliame Takayawa, to FICAC.
“Basically, it was in regards to a Facebook post that I did last year and the complainant was Viliame Takayawa, the former general secretary for SODELPA,” she said.
“My post was on April 16th or April 19th of last year and it had to do with the demise of SODELPA following the annual general meeting and what could happen with the Coalition because by then, Aseri (Radrodro) was not a Cabinet minister.
“The interview went well and I was told I had breached Section 14D of the Fijian Political Parties Act 2013 that ‘a public officer shall not publicly indicate support for or opposition to any proposed political party”.
Ms Waqanika said she told FICAC she didn’t see herself supporting or opposing SODELPA.
“All I said is the demise of Sodelpa. And everybody talks about it,” she said.
In the meantime, Ms Waqanika also raised concerns over the way the process of complaint is being handled by the Fijian Elections Office these days.
“Whenever there was an allegation against any political party, and I went through this with Saneem (the former SOE), he would write to us and say, ‘Listen, there’s a complaint made against you’.
“Then we would reply and Saneem, being the lawyer that he is, he’d say, ‘no, there’s no merit in this’, or he’d say, ‘no, this is an offence under the Political Parties Act or the Elections Act’.
“He would then refer it to FICAC. That’s how we all got to know.
