FEO receives a total of 1,693 Postal Voting envelopes as of today

The Fijian Election Office has received a total of 1,693 Postal Voting envelopes as of today.

The Deputy Supervisor of Elections Karyl Winter says the verification of the postal transmission envelops is a critical step for the 2018 general election postal ballots before they are counted on election day.

The transmission envelopes has the secret envelope and ballot paper inside.

Local postal now stands at 10,040, overseas stands at 1,187 making total number of postal applications 11,227.

The deadline for receipt of Postal Ballots by the Fijian Elections Office is no later than 6pm on Election Day.             

Deputy Supervisor of Elections Karyl Winter also explained the process of verification where it begins at the box where they receive those postal votes.

The transmission envelopes are then removed and packed into batches of 10.

These batches of 10 are then taken to the verification team where they are scanned into the Fijian Elections Office EMS systems.

Signatures or thumb prints are also certified and the verification officers stamp and signs each envelope.

Those that are approved are put in the approved tip box and those that are rejected are placed in the rejected tip box.

The rejected votes are then taken to the Supervisor of Elections  who will take a second look at those rejected transmission envelopes and make the decision based on which envelope fits the criteria of postal voting.

The approved transmission envelopes are opened and the secret envelopes are removed and packed into batches of 50.

When it reaches 500 secret envelopes they are placed into the ballot boxes and sealed.

The Supervisor of Elections then has to print the labels for the Protocols of Result and the Record Book.

The sealed numbers and other necessary information are written into the record books which is then placed in an envelope.

The ballot boxes are then transported and put in secure containers until on election night where counting will start. 

The Deputy Supervisor of Elections also highlighted that the Fijian Elections Office values each and every vote, so the Fijian Elections Office have a strict process in place for each stage of the verification process.