The Electoral Commission has yet to decide whether General Election campaigning will be suspended during the campaign period for Fiji’s National Referendum scheduled for December 9.
The Commission confirmed it will consider whether General Election campaigning and related activities governed by Part 4 of the Electoral Act 2014 should be suspended for all or part of the referendum campaign period.
The consideration follows a request from Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka for General Election campaigning to be suspended until after the referendum.
Under section 15(2) of the National Referendum Act, the Electoral Commission is responsible for determining the issue and said it would announce its decision at a later date.
The Commission must also determine and announce the official campaign period for the referendum.
General Election campaigning has already been underway since May 25, when the Electoral Commission officially declared the campaign period open.
Electoral Commission chairperson Justice Usaia Ratuvili said preparations for the referendum would now run alongside preparations for the General Election, requiring the Commission and the Fijian Elections Office to manage two important electoral processes.
Supervisor of Elections Ana Mataiciwa said preparations for the referendum had already begun.
“For the FEO, there is a lot of work ahead of us, but that work has already started. Our teams are ready, and our preparations are moving forward,” she said.
“Our priority is to make sure Fijians know what they need to do, where they can get assistance and where they can get information they can trust.”
The FEO will continue preparations for the General Election while putting arrangements in place for the December referendum.
