The FEO has this week disbursed $7,350 to 23 communities in Fiji as part of the Community Engagement Project in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme [‘UNDP’]. In addition, 23 Community Election Advocates have collectively received their allowances for conducting election awareness sessions in their respective groups.

In announcing the disbursements, Supervisor of Elections, Mr Mohammed Saneem said the programme is progressing well and the CEA’s have done well in conducting voting related talanoa within their communities and the payment is for the communities to use for their projects.

The Community Elections Advocates are required to conduct a 15-minute awareness session on elections with their community members and depending on the number of participants who attend the session, the community receives a grant which will go towards any development activity that benefits their community.

Mr Saneem highlighted that making elections a topic of discussion at the grassroot level and arming people with direct crude information was certainly the way to go for the FEO.

The FEO and the UNDP aim to certify 240 Community Elections Advocates around the country and reach over 7,000 Fijians through them.

So far, 172 community representatives have been trained and certified with 10 Training of Trainers sessions held.