The proposed General Secretary of the proposed FijiFirst, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has invited the Registrar of Political Parties to reject all the objections against the proposed party as he said that the objections lack merit.

While responding to an objection by a Nazia Rauf, Sayed-Khaiyum said the proposed FijiFirst respectfully states there is no prohibition in any law on the use of the Fijian flag. 

Rauf had questioned why the proposed FijiFirst is using the national flag as its logo.

Sayed-Khaiyum states that the logo of the proposed FijiFirst only uses a variation of the Fijian flag in the background with the word FijiFirst written prominently over it.

Sayed-Khaiyum also said the Fijian flag is available for every Fijian to use. 

He said the use of the flag in the background in the logo of the proposed FijiFirst reflects the values of the proposed party and what they stand for which is to serve the best interests of all Fijians and to always put the nation-state of Fiji first. 

Rauf also questioned why there are no signatures next to some names when the proposed party’s member signatures were published. 

Sayed-Khaiyum accepts there are some names with no signatures but he said these names were not counted in the total 40,083 that actually signed up for the proposed party.
  
He also said that there are no particulars to substantiate claims by Doctor Tupeni Baba that the proposed leader of the proposed FijiFirst has been campaigning before registration. 

He said the group gathering signatures has always referred to themselves as the proposed FijiFirst.
 
Responding to the objection that Bijai Prasad who was convicted of larceny and sentenced to prison in 1983, Sayed-Khaiyum said Prasad has withdrawn his name from the proposed Vice President’s name which means that this is now a non-issue.

Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum also said that a Fiji 1st Party application was made in 2008 however no such registration was made or completed. 

He said no gazette notice was published which confirms that the Fiji 1st was never registered as a party. 

It has been highlighted that only the application of the Fiji 1st Party was published in the December 2008 gazette.

The proposed General Secretary of the proposed FijiFirst, Sayed-Khaiyum also said that notwithstanding the fact that the Fiji 1st Party was never registered in law as a political party, the proposed party also wishes to highlight that the name of that party is different from the name which has been proposed by the FijiFirst. 

He also said that the logo is also substantially different from the symbol that was contained in the application for registration by the Fiji 1st Party in 2008.

While responding to Mick Beddoes objection, Sayed-Khaiyum said that the proposed FijiFirst is not using the Fiji Coat of Arms. 

The Fiji National Coat of Arms consists of the images of two Fijian warriors on either side of a shield and the motto “Rerevaka na Kalou ka Doka na Tui” below the shield. 

The shield from the Coat of Arms has the image of a lion holding a cocoa pod across the top, sugarcane, a coconut palm and bunch of bananas are represented in three of the shields sections. 

The fourth contains the reproduction of a dove of peace, the main feature of the Cakobau Government’s flag before cession.
 
Sayed-Khaiyum said Beddoes also refers to pending Police and Media Industry Development Authority investigations as a ground to challenge the independence of the Supervisor of Elections. 

In reply, the proposed FijiFirst said they regard this as a desperate attempt by Beddoes to conjure objections in the hope that the application is not granted. 

The proposed FijiFirst also states that they have received no official communication from Police or MIDA.

Registrar of Political Parties, Mohammed Saneem will make the decision on the registration of the proposed FijiFirst within the next few days.
 
 
Story by: Vijay Narayan