Fiji’s People’s Alliance party leader Sitiveni Rabuka hopes the new appointees to the electoral commission will not let their political affiliations influence their work.
Two new appointments were made in the commission last month with lawyer Mukesh Nand as EC chair and media personality/TV news presenter Ateca Ledua, who contested the 2018 elections under the FijiFirst banner, as a member of the commission.
“To the pure everything is pure,” Rabuka said.
“I hope that they will come in and perform to the expectations of the nation and that they will not be politically influenced by former associations. We have people who are capable of that and we also have people who are not capable of that. The result will show.”
Nand replaced Suresh Chandra, who resigned late last year, and Ledua replaced Mere Roden. Roden was one of two new appointees to the commission in 2020 alongside Selina Lee Wah. The continuing members in Jawahar Lal, Simione Naiduki, Margot Jenkins, and Kavita Raniga had been EC members since 2017. They were reappointed to the EC in March 2020, a month after their initial 3-year term expired.
Rabuka says changes to the make up of bodies like the EC “is the normal process.”
“We expect that and it does not have to coincide with a certain date in relation to elections. The wheel continues and if you have to retire, you retire.”
