FEO Continues Nationwide Voter Registration Drive

The Fijian Elections Office’s (FEO) Nationwide Voter Registration Drive and Know your Election Campaign continued yesterday.

In five days it served over 16,500 voters in some of the most remote locations in Fiji.

So far they have covered over 225 locations around the country. These numbers also include several voter awareness sessions conducted by the teams directly with Fijians.

Their awareness team reached Rewasau Village in the heart of Viti Levu and another team reached Marou Village in Nadarivatu after over one hour of trekking. The team from the North also reached Cikobia Island and have begun providing voter services to the four villages on this island.

As the week progressed, they continued to reach out to some of the most remotest villages and settlements in our country so all the voters in these regions could access voter services right before the next general election.

Access to maritime regions are dependent on the tide which means certain places that were previously scheduled would have to be adjourned to the next high tide. This, the people in those regions easily understand – as is the case in Kadavu.

Given the size of the operations in this exercise, the FEO has ensured that all attempts are made on the ground regarding the updated schedules.

For instance, and rather unfortunately, while Lynda Tabuya may not have known that the time for the Lomaivuna visit by the team had changed, the District Officer, the Provincial Administrator and the Advisory Councillor, namely, Hublashi Lal, were fully aware and had informed all the voters that the teams would be there today from 9am to 5pm or longer if necessary. In Ms Tabuya’s Facebook post, she has posted about a person who had turned up to some other place instead of the residence of the Advisory Councillor which is the scheduled venue.

The FEO team at Namatakula reported to us that voters from nearby villages and settlements also came when the team went there.

Unfortunately, due to FEO’s planned visit to Narata Village, the FEO had to postpone registrations at Jubairata Village and return there on Wednesday morning to cover the remainder of the villagers.

We point out that it was Lynda Tabuya who posted on her page asking voters to come to secondary schools for registration services and created a big kerfuffle out of nothing.

The FEO does not provide voter services to members of the public inside school premises during school hours. The latest updated schedules are published on the FEO Facebook page and these are also relayed to the TNK and Advisory Councillors on the ground.