Supervisor of Elections says he wished new elections training for the media was compulsory but it is not

A new Fijian Elections Office virtual training called “e-vuli” has been launched today for the media, however it is not compulsory to undertake this training in order to report on elections.

Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem says he wished it was made mandatory for the media who wish to cover the upcoming general election.

He says the training for the media in the lead up to the 2022 elections will be held virtually as opposed to face to face as not everyone has the time to attend the sessions.

When questioned by fijivillage whether the virtual training would also see no face to face session to thrash out issues between the media and the Fijian Elections Office in order to provide better coverage, Saneem made it clear that the media handbook and training has covered everything they feel needs to be covered for the media.

The Supervisor of Elections has encouraged members of the media to find time to go through the training and he is hopeful the training will provide information that will help build capacity around reporting in elections. Meanwhile, Saneem says the e-vuli elections training will also be open to the international media, universities and high schools as well as members of the public who are interested in getting to know how the general elections are covered.