The Elections Office has today revealed that it is looking at having about 2,000 polling stations in the September general elections.
Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem confirmed that about 500 voters will be allocated per polling station to ensure that people enjoy the voting process and are not stuck in long lines for most part of the election public holiday.
Saneem confirmed that the Elections Office will identify suitable polling stations by the 30th of this month.
They will then begin moving voters by street addresses to the nearest polling stations.
This will be done to ensure that about 500 voters are allocated per polling station.
By early next month, the Elections Office will publish the list of proposed polling stations with the provisional allocation of voters to each polling station.
Saneem said voters will have the opportunity to learn where they will vote and also amend or change their address if that needs to be done.
It has been confirmed that about 16,000 officials will be involved in the polling and counting process on election day.
The cost of running the general election is set at 42 million dollars.
The Elections Office has also confirmed some of the important dates as we approach the general elections on the 17th of September.
The end of candidate nomination period will be on the 18th of August while any withdrawals or objections have to be done by the 19th of August.
The National Candidates List will be out on the 25th of August.
On this day, the Elections Office will confirm the number that each candidate will be allocated on the ballot paper.
Under the new system, the ballot paper will only have a list of candidate numbers. There will be no party symbols or candidate’s names on the ballot paper.
This system also has only one constituency and that is Fiji.
People can vote for any person who is an official candidate.
As already highlighted, it is not race based and does not restrict people from voting only for candidates in certain areas.
Under the Electoral Decree, the candidate numbering must start from 135.
The names will then be drawn with the numbers.
The candidate’s names, their photos and numbers will be displayed at all polling stations when they go to cast their votes.
It has been confirmed in the Electoral Decree that people can either tick, cross or circle only one candidate's number on the ballot paper.
Voting will take place from 7.30am to 6pm on election day.
Counting will then take place at all the polling stations after polling ends.
Counting of votes will be done at each polling station however the process for tabulation of results received from each station must be conducted by the Supervisor of Elections in Suva or such other publicly accessible place designated by the Supervisor.
The parliamentary seats will then be allocated based on the proportional representation system.
According to the constitution, the seats in parliament must be awarded to candidates in proportion to the total number of votes cast for each political party contesting the election which shall be determined by totaling the number of votes cast for each candidate of that political party.
Story by: Vijay Narayan
