15,609 to cast votes today as pre-polling begins

Teams from the Fijian Elections Office accompanied by officers from the Fiji Police Force left for Kadavu and Lau yesterday. Picture: SUPPLIED/FIJIAN ELECTIONS OFFICE FACEBOOK PAGE

By SEMI MALAKI

Pre-polling starts today with 15,609 people expected to cast their vote today at 138 venues around the country.

In the Central Division, 3013 voters are expected to vote, 4081 in the Western Division, 3055 in the Northern Division and 5460 in the Eastern Division.

In a statement yesterday, Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem said 89 teams would be deployed to conduct pre-poll in 23 venues in the Central Division, 49 in the Eastern Division, 28 in the Northern Division and 38 venues in the Western Division.

Yesterday, a team with three election officials and one police officer left the Nausori International Airport for Rotuma where pre-poll will be conducted from today until November 8.

Five ships also left from the Government Shipping Yard and Narain Jetty in Suva yesterday with eight teams comprising 40 officials and 20 police officers headed for Lau.

The ships for Kadavu had 18 teams comprising 85 election officials and 36 police officers while the ship headed to Lomaiviti had four teams comprising 20 election officials and 10 police officers.

Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem. Picture: SUPPLIED/FIJIAN ELECTIONS OFFICE

For the Central Division, Mr Saneem said 10 teams were deployed yesterday while three teams were deployed today.

“For the Western Division, three boats carrying a team of five election officials each departed for the Yasawa Islands and 16 teams have left for the interior of the Western Division,” he said.

“A helicopter team would depart for the Northern Division while another helicopter team will leave for Keiyasi. For the Northern Division, 14 teams departed at 2pm (yesterday) for the pre-poll venues in the rural places in the North.”

With pre-polling and daylight saving in place, Mr Saneem urged all the teams heading out not “to rush”.

“Take your time and to the police officers who are onboard the transportation vehicles, please keep an eye on the speed limit and make sure that the vehicles are not travelling at speeds beyond the approved limit as well as safe speed limits as you know on the gravel roads, even though the speed limit is 80km/h, you don’t have to drive at that speed if it’s not safe. Drive at a lower speed,” he said.

Meanwhile, Fiji Electoral Commission chairman Suresh Chandra said the Fijian Elections Office would be operating 587 pre-poll stations around the country at 582 pre-poll polling venues where 69,466 voters are expected to cast their ballot.

In a statement last week, Mr Chandra said under Section 82 of the Electoral Act, the Fijian Elections Office would conduct pre-polling for voters in remote areas or locations where the number of voters suffice for the establishment of a Polling station.

“Voters in outer islands, hard to reach locations, residents of nursing homes or healthcare facilities, members of disciplined forces and those under pre-trial detention are eligible to vote via pre-poll,” Mr Chandra said.

“Voters are encouraged to go to their respective pre-polling venues, cast their ballot, and get their fingers marked and place their ballot paper inside the secret envelope which they will place inside the ballot box.”

He said the pre-poll venue with the most number of voters was the Queen Elizabeth Barracks in the Central Division in Suva where 1,438 voters would cast their vote at three stations while the Sabata Community Hall in Navua, which falls under the Central Division, had the least number of voters with only 14 voters registered to cast their ballot.

“We hope that voters are able to take advantage of this weekend to familiarise themselves with the manner in which they have to vote as well as to organise themselves to adhere to the pre-poll schedules advertised in newspapers and our website and Facebook pages,” Mr Chandra said.

“At this point, may I mention that all the areas that are under pre-polling have been made aware of the schedule as well as the fact that they will voting via pre-poll.”

* Semi Malaki (Tuvalu) is a final-year journalism student at The University of the South Pacific in Suva.