Fiji Elections

Extra 1500 police on duty for Fiji election

Police Commissioner, Brigadier General Sitiveni Qiliho, said a further 1500 police officers have been deployed to assist the Fiji Elections Office today.

Qiliho said the Force has invested in geotracking equipment (GPS) to assist with operations.

"We have also invested in the use of technology, where we are aware where our specific vehicles are located at any particular time," added Qiliho

Fiji Elections Office app back online after glitch

Supervisor of elections Mohammed Saneem briefed media in the early hours of Thursday morning saying attempts to restart a failed data transfer had caused the app to glitch out and give a disproportionate amount of votes to some candidates with two in particular receiving a boost of about 28,000 and 14,000 votes respectfully.

Women casting their votes in large numbers

Timaima Vulimailaucala told RNZ Pacific that today is the most important day for all Fijians.

"It is an important processor as citizens to come forward and cast your vote because whichever government of the day gets elected is because of your effort to cast your vote and make it known that this is what you wanted.

"There's a long queue here, people are going away because of the queue but I would recommend or ask them to come back. This is the only day that you can make a change.

Fijians heading to the polls today

This is the country's third election under the 2013 constitution.

In the race are 343 candidates from nine political parties and two independents vying for a seat in the 55-member parliament.

Voting will take place at 855 polling stations from 7.30am to 6pm Fiji time, or until after the last voter in the queue at 6pm has voted.

The Fijian Elections Office has announced that all voters will be provided free transport today.

Fiji Elections Office monitors weather ahead of poll day

According to the Nadi weather office, a heavy rain warning remains in force for Viti Levu, Yasawa, and the Mamanuca Group, Kadavu and nearby smaller islands, Vanua Levu, Taveuni, and nearby smaller islands, and the Lau and Lomaiviti groups.

Saneem said they understand that during pre-polling, a few areas in the interior where their teams were located had faced adverse weather conditions.

Fiji Elections Office deals with pre-poll issues

FBC News reports Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem said the Fijian Elections Office had to deal with several issues immediately to ensure that operations were not affected at some of the venues that were used yesterday.

“Polling agents tried to introduce new procedures in one location, which we very quickly dealt with. We also had a situation where “How to vote” cards were issued during the queue in the polling station and we’ve also dealt with that. There are a few other minor issues that we will continue to deal with as we progress into the next few days.”

Early in the final vote count in Fiji SODELPA lead

A third of polling stations have been counted after polling day on Wednesday.

At midday SODELPA had an eight percent lead over Frank Bainimarama's FijiFirst, with two thirds of polling stations still to be added to the national tally.

The National Results Centre is entering data as result sheets are transported in from around the country.

Provisional results from the polling stations indicated a slim victory for Mr Bainimarama.

The elections authorities have urged people not to heed false reports a second count is being conducted.

Fiji election blackout to end on Saturday night

The blackout was supposed to have been lifted at the close of polls on Wednesday.

But the ban on reporting election campaigning will last until extra polling ends on Saturday.

Heavy rain forced the early closure of 25 polling stations on Wednesday and the cancellation of about 7500 votes.

Election authorities have announced they will reopen these stations on Saturday.

Provisional results show a win for Frank Bainimarama's FijiFirst but counting is still underway.

Noon deadline for Fiji election candidates

By the end of last week the Fijian Elections Office (FEO) had processed 178 candidates representing four political parties.

Those rejected had failed to meet the requirements of the Electoral Act, according to the FEO.

The FijiFirst Party, the Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA) and the National Federation Party (NFP) all presented a full line-up for the 51 parliamentary seats and each had one candidate rejected.

Fijians eligible to vote on election day

Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem says that 316, 431 are females while 321, 096 are males.

Saneem says the central division has 265,184 voters, the west has 244, 245 voters, 99, 094 in the North, East has 26, 034 voters while 7, 970 are overseas registered voters.

He says 70, 519 voters have been assigned for pre-poll while 559, 038 Fijians will be vote on Election Day.

Saneem says the final numbers for Election Day will be available on the 27 of this month after they have finalised the postal voting applications.