15 Oct 2002

Fiji Labour party could challenge municipal election results

7:09 pm on 15 October 2002

A legal challenge is being considered for some of the municipal elections held in Fiji after the Labour party claimed fraud and vote rigging went on.

A senior FLP member, Lavenia Padarath, says the party may take legal action over the results in Nadi, Ba, Labasa and Suva.

She says she caught Suva city council reprinting ballot papers which it's not allowed to do, there were candidates registering voters outside their boundaries and in one instance, a man was caught voting on behalf of his father.

Mrs Padarath says it's too easy for people to vote when they're not entitled to.

"This is one of the difficluties we face,that people who come to vote, we have no way of identifying. You know if you go and vote for somebody else, we don't have a way of knowing that you are the right person, because we don't have, like an ID system, or anything like that yet."

Mrs Padarath says she's not had any response to a complaint filed with the elections office and the police over the Suva incident.