OEC CLARIFIES APPLICATION OF THE ELECTORAL ACT 2019
By: Joshua Lafoa’i
The Office of the Electoral Commission, (O.E.C.) in preparation for the 2021 General Elections remain the same based on the core principles of the Electoral Act 2019 approved by Parliament, clarified Electoral Commissioner Faimalomatumua Mathew Lemisio.
The OEC Chief clarification follows a confidential agreement sanctioned by the Supreme Court after was reached with the petitioners Papalii Panoa Tavita and Tuala Ponifasio along with their Attorney Mauga Precious Chang.
“Due to the confidentially nature of our agreement which is not a ruling as misinterpreted by many, I can confirm that parts of Act will be redrafted to clarify the policy rationale behind the amendments under question,” says Faimalomatumua. However he reaffirmed that the “application of the Act remains.”
“It’s safe to say that it’s more a question of interpreting certain parts of the act which are in question and we will redraft the amendments for further clarification,” he added.
According to reports the two sections of the Act under questioned dealt with the eligibility of potential candidates to run for Parliament, and the authorities given to OEC to review, approve or reject any applications for candidacy.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner says the OEC will still have to revisit the Act and its regulations.
“We realized that the wording was confusing and we sat down with our legal advisors and knew, win or lose we needed to address the sections in question because it needed to be satisfied in order for the law to be followed,” he said.
The Commissioner says the realization is that the phrasing of this particular part of the Electoral Act 2019 was indeed misunderstood and may still be so unless it’s rephrased for further clarification.
“The wording will be changed, but the application to this particular section of the Electoral Act will remain the same,” he said.
“It’s a good thing that we’ve had this case because it has shown us that not everyone can understand the technical language used to explain some parts of the Electoral Act,” he said.
“It’s also important that running candidates know where to go if they don’t agree with certain parts of a law in their interpretation,” he added. And he is encouraging electoral candidates to uplift the applications from the OEC prior to the official registration period which starts in October.
