Croz Walsh's Blog -- New Zealand and Fiji: How Much Fairer They Could Be

Elenoa Baselala in the Fiji Times
Friday, July 15, 2011

THE deputy Supervisor of Elections Soro Toutou has been reassigned to the Public Services Commission. Justice permanent secretary and Solicitor General Christopher Pryde is now overseeing the operations of the Elections Office, confirmed PSC permanent secretary Parmesh Chand. Mr Chand said Mr Toutou has been transferred to assist the commission in the ongoing civil service reforms.

The blog writes: "Intelligence sources say the CEO of Vodafone, Aslam Khan, was frisked and detained in a US airport on the suspicion he may be financing terrorist cells." From their first two words they spin deceit. The intelligence sources are their informants, not some state intelligence source as many readers would suppose.

The blog goes on to say they are releasing "this controversial information to warn the US, AUS, NZ and EU that Fiji is a potential carrier of terrorists who might get into their country with the help of the illegal regime and that the above people may well be moving large amounts of monies that might have come from links to world terrorist  cells."

Filipe Bole has replaced Adi Ateca Ganilau as Lau Provincial Chairperson barely one day after she received 17 votes and Bole 15 votes for the position.  Her replacement is being hailed as evidence of government interference by the anti- blogs (and her brother Ratu Tevita in Australia) and so, up a point, it might be, but provincial councils are bodies funded by government to administer itaukei affairs in Fiji's 14 provinces (Rotuma to the north of Fiji proper has its own council.) Their composition,functions and procedures are spelt out by government legislation — any government, not just this one.

The change is reported to have occurred after a statement (that others called an "outburst against the government") in which she denounced the People's Charter and Government leadership. Adi Ateca denies this, saying, “I was in no way [trying] to persuade the Council not to support the government. I was giving my views to the Council and not saying that we do not want to s…

How many times have we heard democracy is about more than elections; it is also about what Government does, interacting with people, listening, and letting them know what it does?  

For the last several weeks citizens have had a close look at government  in action by attending the almost weekly exhibitions held by different government departments at the Government Information and Referral Centre (GIRC) in downtown Suva.

Last week was the turn of the five divisions in the PM’s Office —Cabinet, Poverty Eradication, Development Cooperation and Facilitation, Policy Analysis, and the Strategic Framework for Change and Coordination Office.  One interesting daily feature was a live talk back show conducted by Fiji Broadcasting  in Fijian, Hindi and English.  

Officers from one division, the SFCC Office, manned their booth and went on air to inform the public and field questions on the the SFC, the People’s Charter and the Roadmap.  – Based on No:1420/PSC.   Fiji is not yet a democracy but I thi…

Extracts from CCF Release.

The Election Office is working on arrangements for the implementation of ‘electronic voter registration’ in time for the 2014 General Elections. Electronic voting is fast becoming a preferred method of voter registration in many countries primarily  because, once initiated, it reduces costs and speeds up the voting processes.

Attorney General and Minister for Elections Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum  said, “The work plan for the establishment of a system of electronic voter registration will be sent to overseas missions and multilateral organizations in Fiji for their assistance in implementing the work plan.”

In Fiji, the system will be based on a centralized voter database that will be used for both national and municipality elections. Registration will use birth certificates or passports as the primary identifier, and voting on each voter’s bio-data and unique finger print. It is expected to greatly reduce voter impersonation.


The Minister said setting up the system will be an enormous task r…

Government has invited the public, for the first time, to hand in their 2012 Budget submissions for consideration.
This has been done as the 2012 Budget focuses on the formulation of policies that will contribute towards raising investments and growth while ensuring fiscal sustainability. Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Finance Filimone Waqabaca, in a public notice, said that government has commenced preparations for the formulation of the 2012 Budget.



He said that in the spirit of continuing with broad-based consultations, the Ministry of Finance invites industry representatives, employer organizations, private sector associations, and civil societies [to submit] written submissions for consideration in the 2012 Budget.


“Through this consultative platform, the Ministry of Finance seeks to ensure that views of a wider cross section of the community are taken into consideration in the formulation of the 2012 National Budget,” Mr Waqabaca said.


“A key area of focus for…