Police warning after EVR team chased

July 16, 2012 | Filed under: Fiji News | Posted by: newsroom
By FONUA TALEI

The Fiji Police Force is warning members of the public to refrain from taking the law into their own hands.

This is after an electronic voter registration (EVR) team serving in the Serua area was chased from a village last week.

Police spokesperson Ana Naisoro said the team went to conduct registration at Vunaniu Village in Serua.

The team was forced to leave after a 58-year old farmer questioned them on why they did not visit the village on the scheduled day as villagers were waiting.

Members of the team then informed the Serua Provincial administrator about the incident.

The administrator contacted police resulting in the farmer being questioned.

“Such actions will not be tolerated as these teams are simply carrying out Government’s intentions of ensuring every Fijian citizen gets an opportunity to register to vote,” Miss Naisoro said.

“It is advisable to discuss issues in an open manner and since this will be a very busy time, people are being asked to be patient and not take the law into their own hands when things do not go according to plan or scheduled.

“We will closely monitor the situation and are requesting members of the public to support the teams as they carry out their work over the coming weeks.”

Attempts to get comments from the acting Permanent Secretary for Elections Mere Vuniwaqa were unsuccessful yesterday.

She is expected to comment today.