Elections Office to train around 15,000 officials for the next elections

The Fijian Elections Office will be training around 15,000 people who will be working for them during the next elections.

While speaking at the launch of the Elections Officials Training, Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem says this will be done in roughly 760 sessions between now and the 15th of April this year.

Saneem says the training sessions will be conducted by FEO accredited field trainers and those who perform exceptionally will then proceed to the presiding officers training.

He adds together with the Ministry of Health they have developed guidelines for ensuring compliance with COVID-19 protocols for the conduct of election officials training.

Saneem says the second phase of their recruitment drive will begin this Wednesday.

The Supervisor also says he has recently completed a Masters in Election Management and he did an analysis as part of the research on how officials in 2006 handled situations at a polling place when compared to 2018.

Saneem says it was noted in the 2006 Election Observer Report that when voters came to a polling station, different stations applied various rules and processes when compared to other polling stations.

He adds in 2018, the Observer Group has rated them very highly with regards to consistency of polling processes between polling stations.