Pacific

Elections supervisor had no foreign expert backing - UFDF

15:27 pm on 22 April 2014

The United Front for a Democratic Fiji says the attorney general misled people by suggesting the supervisor of elections was appointed on the back of recommendations from foreign experts.

Last month, the permanent secretary responsible for elections, Mohammed Saneem, was announced as the elections supervisor.

At the time the attorney-general Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said 13 applications were received but none of them met the set criteria.

Mick Beddoes of the UFDF says contrary to what Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said, foreign experts never made a direct recommendation, and it's hard to believe Mr Saneem was better qualified than the other applicants.

"The people need to know how is it then that supposedly the experts have made a recommendation to appoint someone who wasn't even old enough to vote in the 2006 elections and has never managed an election before to become the supervisor of elections."

Mick Beddoes says no information has been provided about the 13 candidates.