Today, 03 March 2022, is the 6th day of the Nationwide Voter Registration Drive and Know your Election Campaign. The FEO has in just 5 days served over 16,500 voters in some of the most remote locations in Fiji. Just yesterday, 02 March 2022, we recorded 3,660 voters in our engagements. So far we have covered over 225 locations around the country. These numbers also include several voter awareness sessions conducted by the teams directly with Fijians.
Yesterday our awareness team reached Rewasau Village in the heart of Viti Levu and another team reached Marou Village in Nadarivatu after over 1 hour of trekking. The team from the North also reached Cikobia Island and have begun providing voter services to the 4 villages on this island. As the week progresses, we continue to reach out to some of the most remotest villages and settlements in our country so that all the voters in these regions access voter services right before the next general election.
The FEO has approached the Nationwide Voter Registration drive to first reach the most rural areas where we anticipated that there would be delays and adjournments due to the difficulties in accessing these places as well as other amenities such as the availability of electricity for charging the kits and lighting during registration process. Access to maritime regions are ofcourse dependent on the tide which means certain places that were previously scheduled will have to be adjourned to the next high tide. This, the people in those regions easily understand – as is the case in Kadavu.
The FEO is in close contact with the DO’s, the PA’s, the Roko’s and the individual TNK’s and Advisory Councilors in our efforts to continuously keep the people updated. This information channel has worked successfully for us and the TNK’s and Advisory Councilors have worked closely with FEO to gather people at designated locations for us to provide voter services.
Given the size of the operations in this exercise, the FEO has ensured that all attempts are made with the TNK’s and advisory councilors 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 Councilor, 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 Lynda’s Facebook post, she has posted about a person who had turned up to some other place instead of the residence of the Advisory Councilor 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. This influx of people meant more time needed to be spent there. We stand to correct claims by People’s Alliance as it was our Divisional Manager Western that extended the stay of the team there to cater for all the voters. Unfortunately, due to our planned visit to Narata Village, we had to postpone registrations at Jubairata Village and return there yesterday morning to cover the remainder of the villagers. As far as we know, there is an email from the registered officer of PAP thanking the FEO for our arrangements as highlighted above.
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 Councilors on the ground.
We urge all stakeholders to refrain from making wild allegations on voter dis-enfranchisement without properly comprehending the definition or the impact of such claims without any real justification or proof. We have successfully served over 3000 voters daily in some of the most remote regions of Fiji and this itself is testament of FEO’s commitment to make voter services accessible. Stakeholders should refrain from discombobulating the facts as the statistics speak very differently.
Newly registered political parties in Fiji will of course take time to familiarize themselves with the massive operational details of Nationwide drives and the FEO will guide them to understand the plans better.
