A majority of the voters living in the urban centres around the country have yet to up­grade to the latest voter cards.

Around 123,000 registered voters around the country have still not upgraded to their latest voter cards while over 560,000 Fijians have already up­graded.

Fijian Elections Office (FEO) Supervisor of Elec­tions, Mohammed Saneem, highlighted this short­coming at a press conference in Labasa, last Friday.

Mr Saneem encouraged Fijians residing in these centres to make use of this op­portunity to upgrade to the new ap­proved cards.

He said they were plan­ning to en­gage in house visitations to ensure that all Fijians had access to the latest voter card.

“It is not for our benefit only, but to the advantage of the voter as come Election Day, you will be fully prepared to cast your decisive vote,” he said.

As part of the voter card upgrade initiative, 100 lucky people could walk away $100 richer.

Saneem praises rural Fijians in North

Mr Saneem praised the Savsavtaqa community in Waiqele, Labasa, for ensuring that the majority of their members had upgraded to the latest voter cards during his recent visit last Friday.

“Only 12 people had not upgraded their voter card from green to blue,” he said.

He spoke highly of Lekutulevu Village in Caka­udrove where only three out of the 134 people had not upgraded their voter cards.

“This indicates that in the rural communities, the interest shown by people to upgrade their voter cards is high,” he said.

The urban area in Namara, Labasa, encountered the highest number of voters who had not upgrad­ed to the recent election card.

Mr Saneem said they would engage in intrusive marketing and campaigns to get more personnel in to boost the voter upgrading problem.

“The surprising challenge is that they will have to find alternative ways to interact with people in urban areas and advise them to be in line with the new voter card.”

Feedback: sampras.anand@fijisun.com.fj