20 Jun 2016

Election system boost for Fiji

6:15 am on 20 June 2016

New Zealand has donated more than 600,000 US dollars to Fiji's elections office to develop its election management system.

Fiji Electoral Commissioner Chen Bunn Young Sent and Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem

Fiji Electoral Commissioner Chen Bunn Young Sent and Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem Photo: Phillippa Tolley

The FBC reports the donation was made by New Zealand's High Commissioner to Fiji, Mark Ramsden, and will play a major role in Fiji's next elections, scheduled for 2018.

The Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem, said the system will give the office the ability to better manage logistics and reduce the manual control of inventory, equipment and data.

He said this is hoped to reduce human error.

Fiji will be the third Pacific country to have such a system, which is already used in New Zealand and Australia.