Elections Office receives 54 requests for change of name on birth certificate

The Fijian Elections Office has received 54 requests for change of name from voters on their birth certificate.

Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem says not all of these are from married women.

Saneem says there are men who have had wrong names on their birth certificate and are using this opportunity to change their names.

He further says the change of name on the birth certificate will automatically result in change of name on their voter cards.

They have so far served 66,105 voters and of these, there are 9,803 new registrations and 56,302 people have either updated, upgraded or corrected their voter card.

Meanwhile, the Elections Office is conducting the final week of their ad hoc voter registration drive this week.

Saneem says this means their teams will be located at the temporary centres until the end of the week and will not be open on the day of Diwali.

The Supervisor of Elections has also highlighted that the Voter Service Centre at Rups Mega Complex in Nakasi has been moved to the Laqere Market in Nasinu.

He says their ad hoc teams will be returning to the permanent voter registration centres from the 8th of November.

Saneem says these voter registration centres which were initially announced to be opened by January next year have already been opened by the Office.

He has also highlighted that they have sent out the provisional voter list to all the rural areas.

Saneem says they have sent the list to the Turaga ni Koro of these places for them to verify so that they can come back to them and inform them on the number of people who require particular services.

Once the FEO receives the details by the end of this month, Saneem says teams will be deployed to these locations to provide services.

The Supervisor of Elections further says they have extended Elections Office services for business houses by another week, into the first week of December.

He adds the Office has so far registered 104 business houses for Elections Office services where they have done 30 in the Central Division, 34 in the Western Division and 17 at one business house.