Two prominent political parties in Fiji namely the People’s Alliance (PA) and SODELPA have managed to avoid deregistration by submitting their pending financial documents as per the country’s electoral laws.
Additionally, the four suspended parties in FijiFirst, New Generation Party, We Unite Fiji Party, and All Peoples Party, have also submitted their sources of funds listing.
Despite submitting their lists of sources of funds before the May 29 deadline, the four parties remain suspended. This is because the suspended New Generation Party is awaiting approval from the acting Registrar Ana Mataiciwa regarding their audited accounts, while the other three parties have not submitted their audited accounts at all.
Mataiciwa has said that the NGP accounts need to be evaluated to ensure they meet Fiji Institute of Accountants (FIA) auditing standards. Accordingly, New Generation Party’s suspension will only be lifted once the elections office receives confirmation from the FIA.
The four suspended parties have been given until June 15 to submit their audited accounts. Failure to do so puts them at risk of being deregistered.
These parties were penalised earlier this month for failing to comply with sections 23 and 26(2) of the Political Parties (Registration, Conduct, Funding & Disclosures) Act 2013 by April 29. PA and SODELPA were fined for not submitting their funding sources list, as required under section 23, while the suspended four did not submit their audited accounts as outlined in section 26(2).
