The Fijian Elections Office is confident it has sufficient time and resources to train thousands of election officials, with the Election Officials Training programme now under way ahead of Fiji’s next General Election.
Speaking at the opening of the first training session in Suva, Supervisor of Elections Ana Mataiciwa says a total of 13,861 Fijians have passed the computer-based tests, with the FEO now verifying the documents of those who will proceed to training.
She says the training programme will run from this month to November, with around 70 field trainers expected to conduct approximately 720 sessions across Fiji.
Mataiciwa says election officials will be the face of the FEO at polling venues and, for many voters, their main point of contact with the electoral process.
When questioned on whether there is sufficient time to train election officials, Mataiciwa says Fiji is approximately 12 to 13 weeks away from the earliest possible issue of the writ, with the legal timeline allowing for the writ to be issued by 24th December.
She says the time allocated for training is sufficient as the election processes remain the same as those used in the past three General Elections.
INSERT: SOE on election officials training 15th Sept
Mataiciwa says there are currently no budget constraints, with sufficient resources available to carry out the planned training.
When questioned on whether the three Electoral Bills currently before the Parliamentary Standing Committee will affect the training of election officials, she says the Bills are mainly operational and will not affect the processes officials are being trained on, as the voting process and ballot paper remain unchanged.
She has urged participants to make full use of the training, ask questions and practise different scenarios to ensure they are confident in their roles.
