Statement by Supervisor of Elections
Mr Mohammed Saneem
Tender for Election Material and Services
03rd November, 2017
The Fijian Elections Office will be advertising second round of its election material and services procurement in tomorrow’s newspapers in line with its 2018 General Election preparation plans.
Tenders are invited for the following materials and services:
- Ballot Paper Printing
- Postal Voting Courier Services
- Supply of Polling Station Sheds
Expression of interest for supply of motor vehicles is also being advertised.
The FEO understands that some of these materials and services will require our suppliers to place their own material order overseas to be able to meet the quantity and specifications that we require.
Some of these materials may take significant time to arrive in Fiji. Some services may also need thorough planning with the FEO and thus the need to advertise and confirm the suppliers early.
The FEO also needs to ensure that it has confirmation from suppliers in terms of their ability to deliver at notice following the announcement of Election date. Advertising early will allow the FEO to verify the capacities of its suppliers to ensure that the election time plans are not affected.
I would like to touch on some specs for the tenders:
Ballot Paper Printing
The FEO will require the successful tenderer to demonstrate the ability to print, bind and supply ballot papers as per the plan. At the moment the FEO anticipates we may have approximately 630,000 voters.
Ballot papers for the next general election should have atleast 3 security features, bound in books of 50 ballots papers per book and each book is to be uniquely numbered to track the book.
Our Suppliers must have sufficient capacity to operate and deliver approximately 750,000 not exceeding 800,000 ballot papers with 12 days. Additional information is available on the FEO website.
Postal Voting Courier Services
For the 2018 General Election, the FEO has divided the globe into 4 regions in an attempt to streamline the distribution and return of Postal Ballots. It is noted that there may be companies that specialize in some of these regions while there are some that look at distribution worldwide.
The regions are as follows:
- Local Fiji
- Pacific Islands
- Australia & New Zealand
- Rest of the world
Supply of Polling Station Sheds
The FEO estimates it will require approximately 160 Polling Stations that will be in Sheds. These may be locations that do not have adequate facilities to be used as polling stations or where there are more voters than the available space at a venue.
This time we would like suppliers to provide a 7m x7m shed with side covers including 10 chairs and 3 tables. Also a Porta-loo as well as atleast 2 x 4ft Tube lights and 2 power outlets. We prefer that suppliers bid for all these items as a package.
Expression of Interest for Supply of Vehicles
Total 4×4
- 115 for Election Day
- 110 for Pre-poll
- 45 for awareness
3 Tonne –
- 100 for election day
5 Tonne –
- 15
The FEO wishes to advise that in accordance with s13 of the Electoral Act, all suppliers and contractors of the FEO must remain apolitical and must not engage in any political or campaign activity whilst engaged by the FEO.
All tenders by the FEO will be scrutinized by a duly constituted Tender Committee who may require additional information or inspection of the capacities of the suppliers. Bidders are requested to ensure that the Committee has received necessary access to all required information.
Interested person must only contact the secretariat and we reserve the right to reject any tenders from bidders who may attempt to contact other FEO personnel.
The FEO duly considers value for money, quality and capacity and it is not necessary that we award the tender to the lowest bid.
Tenders close on 8 December 2017 at 4 pm.
ENDS.
