The four registered political parties in the country are calling on the Electoral Commission to seek changes to the ballot paper to be used for the September 17th general elections.
The Fiji Labour Party, the National Federation Party, the People’s Democratic Party and the Social Democratic and Liberal Party want the Electoral Decree amended.
They say the ballot paper must include party symbols and candidates’ names.
People’s Democratic Party Interim President, Adi Sivia Qoro said the current format of the ballot paper will see voters either tick, cross or circle a candidate’s number on the ballot paper.
She thinks this format will only benefit the young people.
A senior member of the Social Democratic and Liberal Party, Doctor Tupeni Baba said they will continue to call for the change in the ballot paper as they strongly believe that having party candidates’ names and symbols will make voting easier for people.
National Federation Party leader, Doctor Biman Prasad believes that there will be no confusion if the party symbols and candidates’ names are on the ballot paper.
Although the Elections Office has confirmed that booklets will be provided at all polling stations with all the candidates’ names and allocated numbers, Doctor Prasad believes there is an easier way.
Fiji Labour Party President, Lavinia Padarath has also questioned why party symbols have been discarded from the ballot paper for the elections when they have always been an identification feature of election campaigns and voting.
Padarath also said that all parties have expressed their opposition to the ballot paper that will be used as stated in the Electoral Decree.
Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem said the ballot paper has been prescribed in the Electoral Decree and the Fijian Elections Office is bound by the decree.
We have sent questions to the Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Chen Bunn Young.
He is yet to respond.
We are also trying to get the comments of Attorney General and Minister for Elections, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.
Under the new voting 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.
The candidate names and numbers will be drawn by the Elections Office by the 25th of August.
Under the Electoral Decree, it is said that the numbering must start from 135.
The decree says that all the numbers will be put in a barrel and the Elections Office will draw candidate names with their numbers.
Sayed-Khaiyum earlier said that 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.
Story by: Vijay Narayan
