One day voting is a myth because elections in Fiji take place over a month, says Social Democratic Liberal Party MP Adi Litia Qionibaravi.
She made the comment during debate on the Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2020 in Parliament recently.
“In my February submission, I had also alluded to an example of how the rules operate against Opposition parties,” Adi Litia said.
“The blackout period, does not apply to people voting two to three weeks earlier, so in fact one day voting is a myth because the elections actually takes place over a month in Fiji.
“The experience in the 2014 and 2018 elections is that, the 40-hour blackout is designed to enable the ruling party to silence the Opposition parties.
“For example, in 2018, internet trolls established fake pages, mimicking The Fiji Times, the Fiji Television news, et cetera, and spread fake news such ‘a falsified SODELPA policy to abolish Diwali’.
“It would be interesting to investigate and find out who really were behind these postings.
“Due to the requirements of the blackout period and draconian penalties to be meted out to those who breach the blackout period, the Opposition parties could not go on mainstream media or social media to correct lies which were detrimental to our final vote count.
“Even the mainstream media could not point out that these are fakes and fake pages.”
