The Fijian Elections Office is holding a Stakeholders Forum on Enhancing Voter Participation for the 2022 General Elections today.
Participants include political party representatives, civil society, Australia and New Zealand Election Office representatives and others who had expressed their interest to be part of the one-day forum.
Electoral Commission Chair, Mukesh Nand says it is prudent that they review and organise themselves for the 2022 General Elections so they can drive the voter turnout higher than 2018.
Nand says the voter turnout in 2014 was about 84% while in 2018, it was 72.9%.
He says it is encouraging to note that more women voted in the 2018 elections compared to men.
Nand adds he has found the responses to the post-election survey on the question of how much interest do you have in politics to be even more fascinating.
He says in a voter survey done in 2020, 21.62% of the respondents had no interest in politics and when the same question was asked in the 2022 pre-election survey, the number has changed to 26%.
Nand says these numbers may seem quite subtle but they give them a crucial lead in terms of what lies ahead of them.
Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem confirms all political parties confirmed their participation.
He also says they have reached more than 125,000 people since they started their Voter Awareness Drive on the 25th of February.
Saneem adds they are coming to the urban centres and they want to get many people in the urban centres registered.
