International observers' findings that the Fiji election was transparent and credible are ridiculous, one of the country's opposition leaders says.
The Mulitnational Observer Group hold a press conference in Suva Photo: RNZ Pacific / Koroi Hawkins
The 77-member Multinational Observer Group, comprising elections experts, officials and MPs from various countries, presented interim findings on Friday two days after election day.
It said the process to date had been transparent and credible and it was confident voters had been able to exercise their right to vote freely and recommendations would be released later.
The National Federation Party's Biman Prasad said the findings were "bogus".
"I mean if it is transparent why would we have so many issues, so many complaints with respect to the process, with respect to voters complaining about their votes missing, candidates claiming their own votes in some cases have not been counted?"
Professor Prasad said the group had ignored a whole set of issues.
"The observer group needs to look at the whole political environment, what happened before the election, what happened after the writ was announced. We had all these FijiFirst ministers going around signing MOUs (memoranda of understanding)," he said.
Voters braving the wet conditions to vote in Suva Photo: RNZ Pacific / Koroi Hawkins
He said a similar judgement had been made by the group observing the 2014 elections and that report card was used by the FijiFirst government which had retained power in the latest polls.
"The FijiFirst party and the Bainimarama government went round beating the drum saying the observer group has said it's credible so they ignored everything in the report of the MOG that went into parliament.
"It was referred to a parliamentary standing committee. All the opposition parties and the public made submissions. That report was never brought back to parliament and this is what will happen again," Professor Prasad said.
A voter in Fiji seeking confirmation about where to vote Photo: RNZ Pacific / Koroi Hawkins
Fiji's NFP ready to work with govt
Professor Prasad said the NFP was ready to work with the new government to help fix Fiji's problems.
He said last week's election result was "a rejection of Fiji First's dictatorial and bulldozing style of government and if it is smart, it will change the way it governs".
Frank Bainimarama's party won a majority of three seats with 50.02 percent of the vote.
Professor Prasad said by working together the opposition and the government could provide a faster fix for Fiji's serious problems including poverty, poor public services and rampant domestic violence.
The government should accept scrutiny and criticism from the opposition and change where needed, he said.
Given the election result, Professor Prasad said he would consult the party about his own political future.
Suva City bustling on the day after elections as counting continued Photo: RNZ Pacific / Koroi Hawkins
