Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem says the Fijian Elections Office has in just 5 days of it's Nationwide Voter Registration Drive and Know your Election Campaign served over 16,500 voters in some of the most remote locations in Fiji.
Saneem says just on Wednesday, they recorded 3,660 voters in their engagements.
He says so far they have covered over 225 locations around the country.
These numbers also include several voter awareness sessions conducted by the teams directly with Fijians.
Saneem says yesterday their awareness team reached Rewasau Village in the heart of Viti Levu and another team reached Marou Village in Nadarivatu after over 1 hour of trekking.
The team from the North also reached Cikobia Island and have begun providing voter services to the 4 villages on this island.
As the week progresses, they continue to reach out to some of the most remotest villages and settlements in the country so that all the voters in these regions access voter services right before the next general election.
Saneem says the FEO has approached the Nationwide Voter Registration drive to first reach the most rural areas where they anticipated that there would be delays and adjournments due to the difficulties in accessing these places as well as other amenities such as the availability of electricity for charging the kits and lighting during the registration process.
He says access to maritime regions are dependent on the tide which means certain places that were previously scheduled will have to be adjourned to the next high tide.
Saneem says the people in those regions easily understand this– as is the case in Kadavu.
He says the FEO is in close contact with the District Officers, the Provincial Administrators, the Roko and the individual Turaga Ni Koro and Advisory Councilors in their efforts to continuously keep the people updated.
Saneem says this information channel has worked successfully for them and the Turaga Ni Koro and Advisory Councilors have worked closely with FEO to gather people at designated locations for them to provide voter services.
The Supervisor says given the size of the operations in this exercise, the FEO has ensured that all attempts are made with the Turaga Ni Koro and Advisory Councilors on the ground regarding the updated schedules.
Thursday 03/03/2022
[Photo Credit: FEO]
Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem says rather unfortunately, while Lynda Tabuya may not have known that the time for the Lomaivuna visit by the team had changed, the District Officer, the Provincial Administrator and the Advisory Councilor, namely, Hublashi Lal, were fully aware and had informed all the voters that the teams would be there today from 9am to 5pm or longer if necessary.
Saneem says in Lynda’s facebook post, she has posted about a person who had turned up to some other place instead of the residence of the Advisory Councilor which is the scheduled venue.
Tabuya had said on her facebook that people of Lomaivuna, Naitasiri had been waiting early for the FEO team at the Lomaivuna Advisory Councilors residence for 9am Wednesday and the FEO team failed to show up.
Tabuya said enquiries made to the District Officer Vunidawa said that the team won’t go in the morning but in the afternoon.
She then said that the FEO will not turn up at all in Lomaivuna including 2pm at Lomaivuna Secondary School where once again members of the public were waiting unaware that it’s for students only.
Tabuya said stop attacking the facts and do your job.
Meanwhile Saneem says the FEO team at Namatakula reported to them that voters from nearby villages and settlements also came when the team went there.
He says this influx of people meant more time needed to be spent there.
The Supervisor says they stand to correct claims by People’s Alliance as it was their Divisional Manager Western that extended the stay of the team there to cater for all the voters.
He says unfortunately, due to their planned visit to Narata Village, they had to postpone registrations at Jubairata Village and return there yesterday morning to cover the remainder of the villagers.
Saneem says as far as they know, there is an email from the registered officer of People’s Alliance Party thanking the FEO for their arrangements.
He says they point out that it was Lynda Tabuya who posted on her page asking voters to come to secondary schools for registration services and created a big kerfuffle out of nothing.
The FEO says it does not provide voter services to members of the public inside school premises during school hours.
Saneem further says the latest updated schedules are published on the FEO facebook page and these are also relayed to the Turaga Ni Koro and Advisory Councilors on the ground.
They urge all stakeholders to refrain from making wild allegations on voter dis-enfranchisement without properly comprehending the definition or the impact of such claims without any real justification or proof.
Saneem says they have successfully served over 3000 voters daily in some of the most remote regions of Fiji and this itself is testament of FEO’s commitment to make voter services accessible.
He says stakeholders should refrain from discombobulating the facts as the statistics speak very differently.
The FEO says newly registered political parties in Fiji will of course take time to familiarize themselves with the massive operational details of nationwide drives and the FEO will guide them to understand the plans better.
Thursday 03/03/2022
People’s Alliance Party Leader, Sitiveni Rabuka is urging the Supervisor of Elections to consider the population of each locality they are visiting for the current Nationwide Voter Registration and Awareness Drive and the time spent at each location, as two hours for many locations is not adequate.
Rabuka says this may mean an extension to the deadline for the registration campaign but in the view of the party, the citizens of Fiji must be given the right to register to vote and have their say.
He confirms that the People’s Alliance Party has deployed teams in the Central, Western, Eastern and Northern Divisions to monitor FEO’s progress and provide feedback as appropriate.
Rabuka says a few hotlines will be set up as well at the Party Headquarters in Suva to answer any concerns and they will funnel these as well to the FEO.
People’s Alliance Party member, Lynda Tabuya is heading a taskforce over the next 5 weeks to ensure that all Fijians around the country that have an ability to vote is given an ample opportunity to re-register or apply for a new card as appropriate.
Rabuka says they have received complaints from their supporters on the ground that the registration process so far has numerous issues.
He says for instance, Namatakula Village was allocated 2 hours which proved inadequate.
Rabuka says after discussions between the party General Secretary and FEO officials, the registration was extended by 6 hours.
He says this indicates that the time allocated to each locality does not correlate to the number of people that need to be registered.
Rabuka says they were also advised that accessing birth certificates took up to 10 to 15 minutes in this area due to connectivity issues. He says this must be addressed urgently.
The former Prime Minister says they also received reports from Narata village, Nadroga where only 2 hours were allocated however after discussions, they returned the next morning to complete registrations.
Rabuka says whilst this is good to see, clearly no detailed thought was given to the number of voters in each locality.
He says in Kadavu, it is evident that the planning by the Fijian Elections Office has not taken into account the geographical considerations.
He says for example, Kadavu Provincial School (located in Kavala) and Vunisei were scheduled on the same day. However he says there are closer localities to Kadavu Provincial School that could have been visited before Vunisei.
Rabuka says additionally, Vunisei village is only accessible by high tide from Kadavu Provincial School.
He says it would have been a more efficient approach to access Vunisei village from Vunisea by road.
Rabuka says in the urban area, voters were turned away from Ahmadiyya Muslim School and told registrations at schools are only for students and teachers.
He says naturally, one would find 18-year-olds in Year 13 however all Year 13s have finished exams and are now at home until April.
He says if Year 13 students are no longer at school, then what is the purpose of identifying schools exclusively for students at this time.
Rabuka also says given the spillovers that are happening, the plan by the FEO must be revised daily to capture the revised timing in all divisions.
We have sought comments from Saneem.
He is yet to respond.
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