The man of the moment - Fiji's supervisor of elections Mohammed Saneem (far right) fronts a media scrum for an elections update in the capital Suva. Photo: Fiji Elections Office
With over 90 percent of polling station results now confirmed Fiji could be heading towards its first coalition government since the adoption of its current constitution in 2013.
As 6am local time of the Fiji Election Office results app showed 1994 out of 2071 polling stations or 96.3 percent had been counted.
The results by party have the ruling Fiji First Party in the lead with a 42.47 percent share of the votes counted so far.
The People's Alliance Party is in second place with 35.87 percent followed by the National Federation Party on 8.86 percent and the Social Democratic Liberal party precariously perched at 5.2 percent; just above the 5 percent threshold needed to get into parliament.
Looking at these figures a coalition of the challenger parties, even when figures are rounded up, only comes to 50 percent of the total votes cast. So not enough to form government; they would need to gain one more percentage point amongst them to achieve a majority share of the votes.
There are still 77 polling station results to be accounted for so anything is possible but if the share of votes cast remains some form of coalition with Fiji First would be required to form government.
Mathematically speaking the only combination that would not work as things stand is Fiji First and Sodelpa as together their results would only make up around 47 percent of the total votes cast.
Every other iteration would make the cut.
However, realistically speaking if the challenger parties refuse to form a coalition with Fiji First the country could find itself at a political stalemate.
The next counting update is expected around 12 midday Suva local time.
This is a developing story RNZ Pacific will be bringing you the latest on the days events as reports come in.
