Labour suspended

Avinesh Gopal
Wednesday, July 17, 2013

THE Fiji Labour Party has been temporarily suspended for failing to comply with a key financial requirement of the Political Parties (Registration, Conduct, Funding and Disclosures) Decree 2013.

A Ministry of Information statement said the FLP was required to submit a payment of $6375.60 to the Registrar for Political Parties office to pay for the cost of the publication of its declaration of assets and liabilities due on July 15 but failed to do so.

"The financial responsibilities of the political parties and possible repercussions set out in the decree have been clear all along," said the Registrar for Political Parties, Mohammed Saneem in the statement.

"All the parties must follow the same set of rules.

"Unfortunately, this seems to have been a deliberate decision by FLP leadership to not abide by the decree. It is now up to them to remedy their breach," he said.

The statement said FLP had 60 days to pay or face deregistration as a political party.

During the suspension period, the FLP cannot operate, function, represent or hold itself out to be a political party, it said.

Meanwhile, the statement said the Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA) and the National Federation Party (NFP) met the payment deadline.

In a letter to the Registrar for Political Parties on Monday, NFP's registered officer Dalip Kumar raised concern on certain issues concerning the advertising and payment issues.

Mr Kumar said in the letter that the party had decided to make the full payment of $5796 under protest.

"The party will await the determination of the Commerce Commission before deciding on what steps to pursue in seeking redress in this matter," he wrote to the registrar.