Fiji: electoral fraud?

The Fijian military has released what it claims is evidence that the Fijian government gained power by electoral fraud, stuffing ballot boxes in key urban seats to ensure victory. Setting aside questions of whether it is real, or why a party official would be discussing such a plot with a famous international conman (OTOH, stranger things have happened), this is still no justification for the coup. And the reason for that is that there is a constitutional process for handling crimes like this.

Like New Zealand, Fiji's Electoral Act [RTF] contains a process for electoral petitions, by which a court can examine the conduct of a poll in an electorate, and if necessary, invalidate it. Unlike New Zealand, there seems to be no time limit on such petitions - though one is effectively set by the legal requirement to destroy all ballot papers a year after the polling date (which would be in May next year). The law also includes criminal penalties for precisely these crimes; a year in jail for falsely marking a ballot paper, and another year for putting it in the box, plus any ancillary offences due to acquiring the papers or abusing an official position. So all the military had to do if they suspected or had evidence of this sort of crime was pass it to the media or the opposition, and watch the shit hit the fan. If substantiated, the government would have fallen, and by-elections been called in the disputed seats. Instead, they chose to have a coup and dismiss the government at gunpoint - in the process undermining the very institution they now claim to be protecting.

Finally, it is worth noting that the conduct of the election was monitored by international observers from the EU and neighbouring states - and they noted no such problems. The EU missions's final report [PDF] notes significant problems with a new voter registration systemand the use of gerrymandered racial electorates which compromised the principle that every vote should count equally - but noted no problems with ballot box stuffing (and generally they do notice). OTOH, they did note irregularities with the reconciliation of votes and ballot boxes (including one electorate with a 101% turnout) which could mask such practices. Despite this - and allegations of fraud at the time - the FLP does not seem to have filed electoral petitions on the matter. Maybe this will give them an excuse.