With 120 days to go for voting day, the Elections Office has today announced that it will recruit 14,000 people to work as polling day officials for the September 17th general elections.
Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem said the recruitment process will be done through open days where people go to the advertised recruitment venues to register their application.
Saneem said the applicants will have to undertake a brief test and wait for the result.
He stressed that the recruitment of polling day officials will be based on merit, and anyone who fits the criteria can apply.
When questioned by Fijivillage on whether people who have signed up as members of the political parties can apply for the posts, Saneem said they are welcome to apply if they are not politically active.
Saneem said the Elections Office is moving away from just having civil servants to work as elections officials.
He said it has been opened up to anyone who is eligible to take part in the process.
He said they would like people living near the polling stations to apply for the polling day official posts.
$5 million has been budgeted for this process.
Some expert trainers funded by the European Union are designing the training programme for the 14,000 polling day officials.
Saneem said the people selected to be officials will go through the training process and then be given specific roles and responsibilities.
1,338 proposed polling venues have been identified for the September elections.
Story by: Vijay Narayan
