PRESIDING OFFICER DISMISSES LEGEND FM REPORT

(May 9th, 2006 No. 69)

The Legend FM report regarding voter frustrations from the polling station at the Gospel Primary School in Valelevu has been disputed by Presiding Officer Peni Senitautau and his team.

According to Legend FM, handicapped voters were frustrated by the manner in which they were being tossed around within the polling station which prolonged their waiting at the polling station.

However, Mr Senitautau said these allegations were a mere exaggeration of what actually happened in the reporter’s quest for news worthy stories in order to meet their deadlines.

Legend FM news had alleged that the handicapped voters were frustrated by how they had been ushered around from one side of the polling station to another causing a lot of confusion and frustration.

"The polling clerks had in fact only asked the handicapped voters if they could get down their particulars and that they would vote at the Hart.

"This was particularly because of the fact that there was no one at the station who could communicate properly with these voters because some of them were blind, dumb and some with other disabilities," Mr Senitautau said.

He said that the disabled voters were given first priorities and were in no way tossed around as the report had alleged.

In addition, they had tried to deal with these voters first by getting down their particulars first in order to avoid the long queues they would have caused.

"The disabled voters were in no way tossed around and the frustrations that they had faced had nothing to do with the polling officials," he said.

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