Elections Office launches 2018 ‘Know Your Election’ Awareness Drive

The Fijian Elections Office has today launched the 2018 General Election ‘Know Your Election’ Awareness Drive which will commence from tomorrow.

The Chairman of the Electoral Commission Suresh Chandra says while the date of the elections is not known yet, the commission wants the voters to be educated before a date is set.

Chandra says the Fijian Elections Office has produced Elections Information Booklets which provide information on voters’ rights and obligations to the electoral process and explains the process of voting.

Voter Services Coordinator, Aisake Saukawa says the awareness campaign was developed so that the Elections Office Voter Awareness Assistants will visit all communities, settlements and villages around the country.

Saukawa says 45 trained teams will be deployed tomorrow, who will be travelling extensively nationwide for the next 6 weeks.   

He says the main tool for educating voters in the Elections Information Booklet have been translated into Hindustani, Chinese, Banaban, iTaukei and Rotuman languages.

He says they have targeted locations which are central to the community, settlement or village and have solicited the assistance of the Turaga ni Koro, District Advisory Counselors and community leaders to inform the residents when the teams visit the locations.

People who are eligible to vote should be over the age of 18 on or before the day the Writ is issued, be a Fijian citizen, not serving a sentence of imprisonment of 12 months or longer, not declared to have a mental disorder and not serving a period of disqualification from registration as a voter.

624,404 people have been registered to vote so far.