NO ORDER FOR PRINTING OF EXTRA BALLOT PAPERS: KARAVAKI

(May 11th, 2006 No. 80)

The Supervisor of Elections, Semesa Karavaki has clarified that he did not order for the printing of extra ballot papers to Government Printing as claimed by the Fiji Labour Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry.

He also said that there are no records on the additional number of ballot papers printed for all the constituencies.

The Police he said, had contacted him earlier yesterday (10/05) after searching the Government Printing and the records obtained from the printers balances with the Elections Office records on the number of ballot papers printed.

“Today I had the Police People in my Office and they brought with them the clear record of the number of Ballot Papers that were printed by the Government Pintery and those records of the printed Ballot papers, they didn’t agree with the number of Ballot Papers that we had bought.

“You see I am surprised you know to hear that there is no proper record that the Police themselves have shown me the record that they got it printed,” he said.

The Supervisor said he only ordered the printing of additional postal ballots as more people had used the postal voting process in this elections.

He also said that police officers are providing security at the Government Printers and during the transportation of ballot papers and boxes.

-End-