All 248 candidates have submitted declaration of assets and liabilities

All the 248 candidates have submitted their declaration of assets, income and liabilities to the Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem.

The candidates had to submit the declarations by today however Saneem has confirmed to us in the last hour that he has already received all the declarations.

These will be published this week.

Saneem said that they have put together a form which requires the candidates to declare their assets, income and liabilities.

He also said the new forms will address the past issues where some of the parties and party officials were not submitting certain details including their source of income.

For the first time ever, political parties, their candidates and officials have to declare what they earn, what they own, and what they owe.

However questions have been raised on whether proper verification is being carried out to ensure that true and accurate declarations are being made.

Calls have been made by some parties to the Registrar of Political Parties, Mohammed Saneem to verify the declaration of assets and liabilities submitted by certain parties and officials so far.

FijiFirst General Secretary, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has earlier said they can see that some party leaders have not submitted their full details.

According to SODELPA Leader, Ro Teimumu Kepa’s published declaration she has no source of funds and $1,000 cash in bank.

The declaration submitted in June last year also shows that Fiji Labour Party Leader, Mahendra Chaudhry has total assets amounting to $3.8 million while his wife Hannah Virmati has $78,000.

The breakdown of the assets and the source of funds were not published.

SODELPA leader, Ro Teimumu Kepa claims that she has made all the declarations to the Registrar.

Fiji Labour Party Leader, Mahendra Chaudhry said he has made his declaration and no one has come back to ask for any verification.

Chaudhry has said that the real issue is for the FijiFirst to disclose the source of the $636,000 worth of assets.

According to the Political Parties Decree, a political party should submit to the Registrar a written declaration giving details of all assets and expenditure including, all contributions, donations or pledges of contributions or bdonations, whether in cash or in kind, made or to be made to the initial assets of the political party.

The declaration submitted to the Registrar shall state the sources of all funds and other assets of the political party.