THE Electoral Commission was unable to complete an external audit of the National Register of Voters ahead of the 2022 General Election.
This was revealed by Supervisor of Elections Ana Mataiciwa to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Justice, Law and Human Rights, where the commission’s 2020 annual report was discussed.
After the 2018 General Election, a group of international observers known as the Multinational Observer Group (MOG) made 21 recommendations aimed at improving how elections are conducted in Fiji.
Part of those recommendations was an external audit, which Ms Mataiciwa said did not eventuate although the commission made four separate calls for expressions of interest.
“The Electoral Commission did make attempts to try and have the external audit done on the National Register of Voters for preparation for the 2022 general election,” she said.
Ms Mataiciwa confirmed that the Electoral Commission accepted 14 of the recommendations outright and did not consider the remaining seven.
“Out of these 21, it was mainly in terms of removal of restriction on party identification in official election materials.
“This recommendation one, we had accepted and this was reflected in our national candidates list.”
She added that the commission had accepted the recommendation for an external audit of the voter register, but logistical challenges prevented its implementation.
The National Register of Voters is the official list of people eligible to vote. An external audit means an independent check to make sure the list is accurate, complete, and free of errors or fraud.
Without this audit, there’s no official confirmation that the voter list was reliable.
