MSG team for 2014 June 23, 2013 | Filed under: Fiji News | Posted by: newsroom Leaders agree to send Observer Mission here for polls By MAIKA BOLATIKI The Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG)Leaders have agreed to an MSG Election Observer Mission for the 2014 Fijian elections. This was part of the communiqué they signed at Escapade Resort, Noumea, New Caledonia at the end of the MSG Leaders’ Summit meeting. Part VI (35) of the 19th MSG Leaders’ Summit Communique 2013 is on preparations for elections in Fiji 2014 and it states: “Leaders received an update from Fiji on their preparations for the national elections in 2014. These included Fiji’s new constitution which was being finalised and would be translated into the three languages at the latest by July 2013. It was noted that Fiji would like to ensure that a credible election was conducted in 2014. Over 500,000 people had registered to vote, with only Fiji residents living overseas yet to be registered. International partners had been provided an opportunity to participate in the election preparations. Leaders welcomed the invitation by Fiji for an MSG Observer Mission to the Fiji elections.” Part VI (36) is on the decision and it states: “Leaders expressed appreciation for the update by the Prime Minister of Fiji on their preparations for elections in 2014 and agreed to offer assistance to Fiji including through the MSG Election Observer Mission.” When the Prime Minister, Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, made a state visit to Papua New Guinea in April this year, he had discussions with the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Peter O’Neill, on having MSG observers for the 2014 elections. In fact the Prime Minister had invited PNG and the MSG countries to prepare an observer mission for elections in September 2014. “I have had discussions with Prime Minister O’Neill and had invited PNG and MSG to prepare an observer mission for elections in September 2014,” the Prime Minister said. The details, he said, would be worked out in due course. Commodore Bainimarama said Fiji did not want a repeat of 2006 when, despite glaring anomalies and fraud, the European Union observer group declared the elections credible. “We cannot agree to such flawed missions.” The Prime Minister said Fiji needed to have integrity across the entire gambit of the Fijian electoral process which, “means also having an observer group that has integrity.” Commodore Bainimarama also expressed the Fijian Government’s gratitude to the Papua New Guinea government for its generous 50 million kina contribution to Fiji’s elections preparation. He said it was a demonstration of the genuine respect and value that the government and the people of Papua New Guinea attached towards what would become Fiji’s first true democratic elections.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Jun 2013 22:33:13 +0000
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