18% Respondents Will Not Read Party Manifesto

Eighteen per cent of respondents will not read political party manifesto,  according to the Fijian Elections Office Pre-Election Survey.

The survey was conducted between January 21, 2022 to February 11, 2022.

There were 9,576 survey respondents where 5,438 were females and 4,138 were males.

Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem said the survey was born from the FEO’s 2020-2023 strategic plan where they heavily emphasised on the initiative to enhance voter participation in the 2022 General Election.

He said while voter participation in an election was dependent on many factors, there was a lack of scientific statistical data about the knowledge, views and understanding of voters.

Mr Saneem said one of the key ways to determine which party policy people accepted was through reading the whole manifesto.

“48 per cent of the respondents indicated that they will be reading the party manifesto, 34 per cent have indicated they may read it while 18 percent stated they will not read the manifesto,” Mr Saneem said.

“Over 40 per cent of the respondents between the ages of 18 to 70 indicate that they will be reading the party manifestos.

“More than 30 per cent of the respondents across all age groups are not sure and have indicated that they may read it.

“A trend can be seen developing for the 40 plus group whereby the probability of the respondents reading the manifesto declines and the likelihood of them not reading manifestos rises as age increases.”

He said this could be attributed to party loyalties or even loyalties to particular personalities.

“They will vote for that party or candidate regardless of the proposed policies of that party or candidate.”

Mr Saneem also highlighted that the survey has indicated that 98 per cent of respondents will vote in the next general election and 99 per cent agree that they have the freedom to vote for whomever they want in an election.

Upgrading of voter cards

Fijians have 13 more days to upgrade their voter cards.

Mr Saneem has urged Fijians to take advantage of the country’s nationwide voter registration drive and upgrade their voter cards while they still have the chance.

“We are encouraging all the people who are working, who are planning any trips to ensure that you meet our teams before you do so,” he said.

“We can’t be everywhere after 7 o’clock. We can try and be in some locations after 7 o’clock so that when you have reached home, you can still access our services.

“By Friday, we intend to be able to publish the exact dates and times and locations for all our urban centre teams so that for the next two weeks, Fijians who are living in these areas can go and get voter services right in their localities.”

He said the election can be called anytime from May 26 this year.

“This means that the registration will close on that very date and this may be your last opportunity to register.”

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