Thirty six ballot boxes had to be quarantined due to various objections made against them.

Supervisor of elections Mohammed Saneem said the boxes had been dealt by him on a case by case basis.

“There were various boxes with various types of objections and each box had to be dealt with on a case by case basis,” Mr Saneem said.

“There was no general description of what the objections were and there were other boxes that would be dealt with because of the same matter.”

He clarified that these boxes that had been quarantined were not included in the provisional results.

“The provisionals only have results that were phoned in and none of those boxes were phoned in, there were 36 boxes.”

Meanwhile Electoral Commission through its observation declared that the elections had been free and fair.

“We are satisfied with ourselves that the elections have been carried out in a free and fair manner,” Chairman Chen Bunn Young said.

“It is good to know that this view had been endorsed independently by the multinational observer group and more importantly by the voters who turned out in unprecedented numbers.”

In regards to objections raised by the five opposition political parties, the Social Democratic Liberal Party, People’s Democratic Party, National Federation Party, Fiji Labour Party and One Fiji Party, the Electoral Commission said the evidence was yet to come in.

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