With elections due in October or November, accusations of fear, military threats and election rigging can be expected to increase. Prof Fraenkel's comments are therefore most timely.
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He made this assessment during his address at the CCF Forum on the “Role of Elections in Democracy” at the Japan ICT Theatre, University of the South Pacific yesterday.
“I think the 2014 General Election results made sense,” he said.
“Many were confused about the numbers and many claimed and still claim till date that the 2014 election was rigged.
“No disputed returns were filed in the High Court after the elections by any of the opposition parties.”
Mr Fraenkel said that Fiji’s democracy was most obviously, greatly weakened by its history of coups and democracy is much more than just holding an election every three to four years.
He also commented that in the 2014 General Election the Prime Minister, Frank Bainimarama had more than 40 per cent of the national votes, which was a lot to settle down.
Mr Fraenkel said in all the elections he had witnessed in Fiji the opposition MPs always claimed fraud and ballot rigging afterwards.
“Politicians expect to win after carrying out campaigns and as elections approach,” he said.
“The FijiFirst Party win was mainly decided on Viti Levu votes and FijiFirst won the election through Viti Levu votes because in Vanua Levu other parties were leading.”
Professor Fraenkel also said that there was no reason to suspect the Multinational Observer Group because for the official tally there was no greater difference than two per cent when being compared with the unofficial tally.
“However, the Multinational Observer Group deserves criticism for the haste with which it organised a press conference at 4pm on September 18th before even the completion of the count,” he said.
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