Fiji's Minister of Elections Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has rejected five political parties' claims of a fraudulent election.
The parties have called on Fiji's election authorities to suspend the vote count because they say they have seen many corrupt and unlawful practices during the polls.
Provisional results show an overwhelming 60 percent of the vote for the FijiFirst party led by the prime minister Frank Bainimarama. Mr Sayed-Khaiyum, who is also a candidate for FijiFirst, said the claims lacked credibility.
Naim Ali has cast his vote Photo: RNZI/Sally Round
“It is very interesting that they are now making these types of claims after the results are now coming out where it would indicate that FijiFirst is going to win government,” he said.
“They had all the time yesterday. If they found any anomalies they should have made those concerns brought to the attention of the election officials almost immediately.”
Five political parties signed a statement saying the election was not free and fair and have complained of multiple breaches including ballot box spoiling.
