14 Sep 2005

Call for change to Fiji's electoral system

9:10 pm on 14 September 2005

Fiji's Citizens Constitutional Forum says the country should dump its current electoral system and move to a form of proportional representation.

The CCF's Jone Dakuvula says the preferential voting system, which ranks all candidates, is overly complicated and has led to Fiji having the highest number of invalid votes in elections in the world.

General elections are due to be held next year and Mr Dakuvula says there needs to be a change.

"In the election in 99, there was an average of nine percent invalid votes in each constituency, and in 2001, that rose to 12 percent. And, it shows that electors don't really understand how to vote and they find the ballot paper too complicated. They don't understand how their votes actually translate into the formation of government."