29 August 2021
The Voter List is the final product in the voter registration process. The Voter List in an election is regarded as the most important administrative component as it contains the final list of voters that are permitted to vote at that particular polling station. This is the document that will allow a person who is registered by the Supervisor of Elections [‘SoE’], under the legal framework to receive a ballot paper for the purposes of casting their vote and in turn realize their rights as protected under section 23 of the Constitution of the Republic of Fiji, 2013 [‘Constitution’].
Section 23 of the Constitution guarantees that every Fijian over the age of 18 years has the right to register and vote in free, fair and regular elections. Section 75 of the Constitution empowers the Electoral Commission to conduct free and fair elections in accordance with the law and in particular they are responsible for registering individuals to be voters and the SoE is the office that administers the registration of voters.
The Constitution, in section 53, guarantees that in the election, every voter has one vote and this vote must be of equal value to every other voter and at the same time, all the voters are listed in one single national roll. In realizing this obligation in the Constitution, every individual who is eligible under the Constitution to be registered as a voter must only be registered once, must only be able to vote once and if that person subsequently casts a vote which is valid, it must only be counted once. If anyone votes more than once, then it infringes on the rights of others who have voted only once. It is the overall responsibility of the SoE, as head of the Fijian Elections Office [‘FEO’] to ensure that the administration of the voter roll explicitly promotes section 53 and has sufficient safeguards to protect voter rights from being infringed.
The Constitutional requirements are very specific and strict and will need to be adhered to conscientiously when preparing the single national roll. The voter list must not be seen as separate and distinct from the voter registration process. The voter list is produced from the National Register of Voters [‘NRV’] (refer to section 40 of the Electoral Act, 2014), a register composed through registration of individuals who are eligible to register in accordance with section 23 of the Constitution. Every aspect of the voter registration process will directly impact the final voter list that is delivered to every polling station.
One of the basic tenets of ‘free and fair’ elections is a clean, complete and current voter list. The voter list must be maintained in a transparent manner and the election management body, in this case the FEO, is held accountable for ensuring that the voter list is regularly updated, consistently verified to ensure its accuracy and correctness, is accessible and where possible published so that it can be scrutinized. It is also expected that the FEO publishes regular statistical information as well.
As at 31 December 2020, the FEO has 650,081 registered voters in the NRV.
The FEO estimates that approximately 665,000 to 670,000 individuals will be eligible to register until the 2022 General Election. Based on the above projections, it can be said that the rate of registration in Fiji, despite it being a voluntary system, is very high. This also means that the FEO will have to be extremely cautious in its role considering the very strict requirements of section 53 of the Constitution. The FEO is expected, and is Constitutionally obliged, to implement strict processes in registering individuals, ensuring there are no duplicates on the NRV and continuously removing deceased voters from it.
Voters are listed in the voter list with the surname of the voters appearing first starting from ‘A’ and moving to ‘Z’. In places where there is more than one (1) polling station, the FEO divides voters into polling stations based on the first alphabet of their surname. The legislation further strengthens the adherence to section 53 of the Constitution by requiring that voters can only vote where they are assigned, and the only exception is if they are postal voters. The FEO is required by section 40(6) of the Electoral Act, 2014 to prepare and publish the list of postal voters on a daily basis and the final list of postal voters is published by the FEO following the close of postal vote applications (Writ day plus 23).
In accordance with section 17 of the Constitution, every citizen has the freedom to seek, receive and impart information. This freedom extends to the citizen having access to the NRV and scrutinizing it. Infact, section 11 of the Electoral (Registration of Voters) Act, 2012 [‘RVA’] explicitly allows a person to verify their own information on the NRV after registration. Then, section 16 of the RVA allows a voter to object to the registration of another voter on the NRV. This essential scrutiny creates greater ownership of the NRV.
The key requirements for registration are attaining the age of 18 and being a citizen of Fiji. In practice, voter registration officials carry the delegation of the powers of the SoE under section 6 of the Electoral Act, 2014. These officials are recruited and provided specific training and they operate under the instructions of the SoE in conducting registration. The registration officials identify and verify the requirements for registration directly from the Birth Certificate of ‘a person’ which is issued by the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registry [‘BDM Registry’] in Fiji. The Birth Certificate is considered prima-facie evidence that the person is a citizen of Fiji, as per section 5(3) of the Constitution and the date of birth recorded in this document is de-jure proof of age. The primary identifier in the Birth Certificate is the name of the person as noted in the document. Birth Certificates are personal to the individual and the information in it becomes the first official record held by the State in its civil registry.
To ensure that every individual citizen can vote only once (as required by section 53 of the Constitution), the SoE through the FEO, in its administration of the voter registration process and in preparing the voter list, must ensure that the information that is relied upon to register a person and consequently list the person in the voter list, is derived from records that are existing and maintained under law. The person’s proof of citizenship is primarily through the birth certificate and the details on this document provide the registration official with cogent details to enter registration as a voter. Based on the official records, the name that is listed in the Birth Certificate is the name of the citizen and the date of birth is for that person. In the field, during registration, the registration official can only conclusively rely on the details of the Birth Certificate and no other document for a natural citizen.
Furthermore, the FEO is also required by section 12(1)(c)(i) of the RVA to remove persons who are now deceased from the NRV. This is another provision of the law that adheres to the Constitutional obligations under section 53. In practice, the FEO intensely promotes the next of kin to report the death of a registered voter. Aside from this practice, the FEO also receives from the BDM Registry a list of persons reported as deceased. This list is used by the FEO to then match the entries on the NRV. If the Birth Certificate records were directly used for registration as a voter, the process of removal of deceased persons would considerably be easier since the matching of records would be swift. If the records, such as name, do not match, then there remain many records that cannot be confirmed as correct. Additionally, there is greater risk when individuals exploit the opportunity to attain multiple registrations. In 2020, the FEO identified 76 individuals that attempted to register using alternate names.
The FEO obtains information from various agencies to ensure that only those who are eligible as per the law are on the register. The BDM Registry provides a list of deceased persons that are to be removed from the NRV. The Department of Immigration provides a list of persons who have renounced their citizenship. The Ministry of Health and Medical Services for the list of persons who have been declared to have a mental disorder. The Fiji Corrections Services for the list of persons who are serving sentences of imprisonment of 12 months or more. The task of matching names of all the voters with the records held at these agencies will become very difficult if individuals are allowed to use names not present in birth records (or as amended subsequently). It will result in people having their names on the NRV when they are actually disqualified from voting. It is not for the administrative convenience of the SoE but a direct necessity for protecting the rights of every voter.
Stakeholders in the election take extreme interest in the voter list. Political parties obtain provisional voter lists from the FEO regularly and carry out direct voter verification through face to face meetings in communities, statistical analysis using mathematical tests as well as crowd sourcing analysis using social media. During the election, parties raise queries for the FEO to verify alleged anomalies, incorrect assignment of voters as well as report some cases of deceased voters.
The FEO, when it verifies the queries by the parties, usually has to rely on official documents such as the birth certificate in case of reports of deceased voters. If the names on the NRV do not match the Death Certificate, the FEO cannot directly remove the voter. It still has to do a next of kin verification and until that is done, the FEO has to retain the person on the NRV. It is also a practice of the Fiji Police Force that they do not approve burial requests until an original Birth Certificate of the deceased is submitted for verification of the Notification of Death’ issued by the medical practitioner.
The final point to consider is the risk of multiple voting. When individuals successfully register multiple times, they can then manipulate the electoral system and cast as many votes. It is not only the case that a person must vote on election day only. They will display their ‘mark’ (from the indelible ink) that they have voted for already but not disclose that they actually did it more than once. This essentially breaches section 53 of the Constitution. However, in the world of elections, this should not even happen once! Prudence dictates that the slightest risk of multiple voting should immediately be addressed.
For the purposes of elections and voting, it is necessary to ensure that the records are verifiable to the fullest extent possible. Primary sources of information should be given higher credibility and accepted readily. The FEO’s capacity to consistently verify the information it holds in its records should be strengthened. Since the Voter Card was introduced, it is usually the case for the majority of the citizens that turn 18 that the Voter Card is the first official photo identification they receive. It is used as a primary source document by financial institutions, government and other institutions in their functions and carries a high level of credibility.
The FEO joins the Electoral Commission in welcoming the announcement by the Hon. Attorney General in relation to amendments to provisions governing the registration of voters in Fiji.
-Ends-
For noting by the media:
- Please forward all media queries to the FEO Communications team at communications@feo.org.fj
- Earlier Press Releases and Media Statements are available on the FEO website https://www.feo.org.fj/category/press-releases/
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