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Tamai Explains Why
posted (April 9, 2019)
The Chief Elections Officer almost got into trouble with the court for simply trying to do her job to the best of her ability. You'll remember that in the Government's application to the Appeal court to bring the expedited appeal, the PUP accused her of being in contempt of court.

That's after that now well-known email last week, which she sent to returning officers and elections clerks. She instructed those public officers to finish up elections preparations in the event that the injunction was lifted, and the referendum was given the green-light for tomorrow's date.

In that email, she said, quote, "Based on legal advice, please proceed with all plans unless directed otherwise... We need to be fully prepared in the event that the court informs that we proceed on April 10th."

The PUP claimants in the Special Agreement lawsuit interpreted that as Tamai instructing public officers to disobey the Chief Justice's injunction. They complained about that email to the Court of Appeal as one of their grounds why the Government ought not to be allowed to bring their expedited appeal.

Tamai told us that she was not attempting to disobey the court, and here's how she explained why:

Josephine Tamai - Chief Elections Officer
"That email was directed specifically to the returning officers and election clerks."

"On that specific date, when the court made a decision, I was receiving several calls from returning officers and election clerks. Because like I said, the preparations were ongoing. These preparations already had meetings prepared, sessions with their public officers working under them, for the following day. So people wanted to know, what do we do? So, I had to get the advice on how do we proceed. Is there there a possibility that we're going to have the referendum anytime soon? What exactly does the injunction mean, because I need to communicate back to these persons. So, when I was informed that there is a possibility, based on the court's decision, that we may have the referendum, on the 10th of April, I have to ensure that as the Elections and Boundaries Department, as an electoral management body, we have to be responsible enough to ensure that we always have everything in place to conduct an efficient and effective referendum process. It must be free and fair."

"If you read the last paragraph of that email, it clearly stated, in the event the court decides that we proceed to have the referendum on the 10th of April. So, the intent for that, was never to say that we will have a referendum. It's the preparations. What caused that was because persons were asking, and they needed to know, what are we to do? Even for myself, I had to get instructions to say, do we proceed to incur expense, or is it that we put everything on hold?"

"I am certain at this point that if we had not fully prepared, and the decision would have been very different, we would be having a different conversation with Elections and Boundaries being criticized of being unprepared, if were to have a referendum on the 10th of April. And we could not afford for that to happen at any point in time."

The Chief Elections Officer says that her office and her staff will be diligently observing for when the ICJ referendum is finally allowed to take place, so that they can be as prepared as they were for April 10th.

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