There were mixed messages being put out by the Fijian Elections Office during the 2022 general elections and that was one of the reasons for the low voter turnout.
This has been highlighted by the Acting Supervisor of Elections and Electoral Commission Acting Secretary, Ana Mataiciwa while responding to questions by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Justice, Law and Human Rights after submitting their 2020-2021 Annual Report.
Mataiciwa says if we have a snap election now then they are not ready because the ballot boxes from the 2022 general elections has material that needs to be destroyed first.
She says for voter turnout, they are prioritising stakeholder engagement and using civil society organisations to start civic education, voter education and then voter awareness.
This comes as FijiFirst MP and member of the Committee, Faiyaz Koya questioned Mataiciwa if the FEO is ready for a snap election and what is being done to increase voter turnout, especially for those who are travelling.
The Acting SOE says they also missed out on civic education in the 2022 general elections.
She says they gave mixed messages while telling people to come and vote and this is one issue they are trying to rectify now.
She says there was some miscommunication and confusion in the information that the FEO relayed.
Mataiciwa says they have a Communications and Public Relations Unit but at the end of the day it all comes down to money and although they need civic education, they only have one person looking after the Unit.
She says they had requested for more budget to be allocated for the Unit but they all know that budget is tight at the moment and they need to make do with what is there.
Mataiciwa says in the lead up to the next general elections, they will be releasing their strategic plan next month which will reflect some of the activities they will be doing including stakeholder engagement and looking at the Year 10 curriculum which is outdated.
