None of the current political parties will be re-registered by the February 14th deadline as the process requires more time for an assessment of the application.

Registrar of Political Parties under the new decree Mere Vuniwaqa confirmed that none of the parties have applied for re-registration so far.

The deadline is this Thursday and it has been confirmed that there will be no extension for re-registration.

This means that the parties will cease to exist from Friday.

The decree states that if an existing party applies to register as a party, then it shall from the date when the application is received by the Registrar, be deemed to be a proposed political party and it must not operate or function as a political party after the expiry of the deadline.

The Registrar is expected to call for objections to the proposed party registration within 14 days after the application is made.

People will be given 7 days for any objections.

During this time, the Registrar of Parties will also assess whether all the requirements under the decree have been met by the party before the registration process is complete.

The National Federation Party and the proposed Social Democratic Liberal Party have said that they will apply for registration later this week.

The Fiji Labour Party is yet to reveal its plan.

However, based on the period set out in the decree, none of the political parties will be re-registered by the deadline this Thursday.
 

Story by: Vijay Narayan