Some current and failed candidates are telling people that the election result counting is not manual – Maharaj

The Chairman of the Standing Committee on Justice, Law & Human Rights Alvick Maharaj has highlighted in Parliament that they have noted through submissions that there is a lack of knowledge regarding the general elections counting process, declaration of results, transferring of sensitive material and final national tally.

While presenting the Committee’s Report on the Bill to Amend the Electoral Act 2014, Maharaj says this is one of the reasons the committee suggested that training needs to be compulsory with regards to the electoral process for all candidates for any general elections to ensure uniform information is passed to the public.

Maharaj says it was sad to note that the public highlighted to them that some current and failed candidates had been saying that the counting is not manual.

He emphasized that the counting process is manual and there is no machine that does the counting.

Maharaj says the inclusion of a provision that allows the party symbols or party names to be included in the National Candidates List was welcomed and commended.

He adds that once all results from the polling stations and count centre are received, the result centre will prepare the final national tally which will be signed by the Supervisor of Elections.

He says the Fijian Elections Office has 14 days to finalize the voter list and publish the official provisional list and then has one more week to prepare the final list.

Maharaj also says it was also advised that any extension will compromise the Elections Office’s ability to deliver a finalized list as required by law.

He further says the provisional results are for peace and calm and shows that the count is progressing.

Debate on the Bill will be done at a later stage.