Fijileaks: We looked up the IDEA report and find that its lead author and Director, Dialogue Fiji, has not referenced a single example from Fijileaks to back up his claims, when the whole world is aware that it was Fijileaks that analysed and exposed the identitites of the FFP donors. We are not surprised, for never in our ten years of existence, Fiji media, academics (except Professor Wadan Narsey), or the politicians have dared to mention or cite Fijileaks exposures. As we say in Fiji, 'Big Lamu Sonas'
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As of today, however, there have been no studies undertaken of how the regulation of political finance could be improved in Fiji. The dearth of literature on political finance in the country has left policymakers and other electoral stakeholders with very little to refer to or rely on in evaluating the effectiveness of legislative controls or implementation approaches, or when proposing reforms to the regulatory regime. This report, which is the first of its kind, has undertaken a systematic study of the political finance regulatory framework in Fiji using an internationally developed, and tried and tested, analytical framework. The analytical framework, developed by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), has been used internationally in other jurisdictions, most recently in Mongolia, to make similar assessments of regulatory frameworks. The study is part of a larger International IDEA initiative to review political finance systems in selected countries in order to advance an evidence-based global policy debate on money in politics.  |
The Fijian Elections Office has this afternoon revealed that it is terminating a Memorandum of Understanding with Sweden based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance.
This is the result of a report by International IDEA on political financing in Fiji.
Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem says given the political nature of the report, the FEO can no longer maintain official links with the international body.
“Unfortunately this report appears to have placed overemphasis on the reactions of some political parties and used that as the penultimate source of information. An independent and apolitical research would obtain data from all sources, but verify and evaluate all before publishing it”.
The organization in response to questions from FBC News says by nature, any research on political finance is political, but stresses that its report on Fiji is not party political, nor leaning to any ideology.
International IDEA goes on to say that there is lack of significant literature on political financing in Fiji and in some cases, researchers referenced media reports.
It adds that Saneem was also provided an opportunity to review the draft report several weeks before publishing, but the FEO did not respond to that opportunity.
Saneem says it is not the job, nor the core role of the FEO to correct errors of other organisations.
This is the result of a report by International IDEA on political financing in Fiji.
Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem says given the political nature of the report, the FEO can no longer maintain official links with the international body.
“Unfortunately this report appears to have placed overemphasis on the reactions of some political parties and used that as the penultimate source of information. An independent and apolitical research would obtain data from all sources, but verify and evaluate all before publishing it”.
The organization in response to questions from FBC News says by nature, any research on political finance is political, but stresses that its report on Fiji is not party political, nor leaning to any ideology.
International IDEA goes on to say that there is lack of significant literature on political financing in Fiji and in some cases, researchers referenced media reports.
It adds that Saneem was also provided an opportunity to review the draft report several weeks before publishing, but the FEO did not respond to that opportunity.
Saneem says it is not the job, nor the core role of the FEO to correct errors of other organisations.
CLICK BELOW TO READ IDEA'S FULL REPORT:
https://www.idea.int/sites/default/files/publications/political-finance-assessment-of-fiji.pdf
