Fijian Elections Office to recruit about 17,000 polling staff

The Fijian Elections Office will recruit about 17,000 polling staff this year for the 2018 General Election.

Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem says they have officially started the preparation work for the 2018 election.

He says following the approval of the Electoral Commission, the Elections Office will be publishing various plans and processes by end of this month.

Saneem says this year the Elections Office will focus on the procurement of election material, preparation of training material manual and guidelines, analyzing polling materials as well as finalization of pre-poll and polling venues for the whole country.

He says the office will make submissions to the Electoral Commission on various requirements under the constitution and the Electoral Act for the endorsement of necessary direction before these are finalized and published.

Saneem says they will first tender for election materials such as ballot boxes and polling kits.

This will start today.

Saneem says an expression of interest will be advertised for ping pong balls with printed numbers from the range of 100 to 999 in two sets that will be used for the national candidates list draw. 

He says the budget for the election materials is about $2 million.