Civil servants should be the core people to conduct elections – Roko Tui Lau

Suggestions have been made to the Fiji Law Reform Commission to have civil servants be the core people in conducting the elections as volunteers that are being used by the Elections Office in previous elections are very young.

This suggestion was brought up by Roko Tui Lau Jioji Kalounivalu during the consultation on the review of the Electoral Act at the Fijian Teachers Association hall, saying that in previous elections before 2006, civil servants were the core people conducting this important task.

He says in the last elections, what they have seen is that civil servants are being pushed to the side.

Kalounivalu said when he was posted with the Lau Provincial Council in 2021 and preparing for the 2022 general elections, they saw that the Elections Office used young volunteers to conduct voter registration and awareness.

He adds that these are very young people who have not voted yet, and he was concerned about the report shared with him by Assistant Roko.

The Roko Tui Lau says some of these volunteers drank grog a lot and sometimes came late to conduct awareness, which questions the integrity of the elections.

Kalounivau recommends that we go back to the old ways of using civil servants as the core people in conducting the elections, and volunteers can be brought in to assist.