Probes after Fiji's Bainimarama loses poll

13 Jan 2012, 5:16 pm   -   Source: AAP
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Another announcement was made by Fiji TV on January 9 that Bainimarama was the actual winner, FBC Radio reported. (AAP)

Another announcement was made by Fiji TV on January 9 that Bainimarama was the actual winner, FBC Radio reported. (AAP)

Fiji's military dictator Frank Bainimarama initially came second in a television popularity poll, prompting two government inquiries.

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Two government inquiries have been ordered after Fijian military dictator Frank Bainimarama lost a television popularity poll.

Fiji TV reported on January 1 that Bainimarama came second in the text poll run by Fiji TV and Vodafone for Personality of the Year, behind Consumer Council chief executive Premila Kumar.

But another announcement was made by Fiji TV on January 9 that Bainimarama was the actual winner, FBC Radio reported.

Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says he has subsequently reported the matter to the Commerce Commission and the Media Development for unethical practices.

"The allegation is that members of the public could text in and give their vote and the announcement was going to be made on the first of January," he said.

"Unbenounced (sic) to many members of the public, Fiji TV closed the actual polls on the 30th of December as opposed to the 31st of December.

"We understand that Fiji TV subsequently made an apology and reversing the outcome, but what we are concerned about is the manner in which it was done in the first place."

FBC said efforts to get comment from Fiji TV "proved futile".

Blog Fiji Today reported that the December 30 cutoff was made because of "a suspiciously large number of texts on the 31st from numbers allocated to the military".

One number voted 23 times.

This was considered suspicious by the television station and the earlier cutoff was to avoid the results being tainted, it said.

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