Fiji voters get familiar with election process
The Fiji Elections Office is confident that an intensive education campaign will result in a high voter turnout at the polls in September.
Transcript
The Fiji Elections Office is confident that an intensive education campaign will result in a high voter turnout at the polls in September.
Its Partnership Coordinator, Losana McGowan, says the public are hungry for information about voting in the country's first democratic election since 2006.
The Office recently carried out a voter education workshop at the National Youth Forum, at the invitation of the Citizens' Constitutional Forum.
Losana McGowan told Bridget Tunnicliffe people are eager for knowledge.
LOSANA McGOWAN: This is a totally new voting system to Fiji and there have been a lot of questions raised regarding this process. I'll give you an example, at the CCF Youth Forum that we attended we took about two hours for the question and answer session as we ensured that all the questions were answered. We also conducted a mock voting session.
BRIDGET TUNNICLIFFE: Are there particular areas about the voting process that people are confused about?
LM: This is a completely new system so there is a bit of confusion on the voting, how do I remember my candidates number [for example]? However, we, through our awareness programmes in the media, our face to face visits to all the communities in Fiji, we are able to inform members of the public of how the process works and after explaining the process the response was similar in most of the communities, that it was a simple and easy to understand process.
BT: Are you confident that come the election day there'll be a very high voter turnout?
LM: Yes indeed. The current final phase, the phase four of the Fijian election office is to create awareness on this voter process. Our civic educators are visiting all the communities and all the schools that have students of voting age. We have a media awareness campaign that's also been running for a month now, it will run until September 17. We have a call centre that's about to open in the next few days where we are confident that come September 17 all the registered voters will be fully aware of our process.
BT: Are you finding that there's some voter cynicism out there that some people think their vote isn't going to make any difference?
LM: One of the questions that have been raised from the community and also from the youth forum, is - will I be penalised if I don't vote? Our answer to them is, no you won't. Compared to the last election, you don't get penalised because it's your right to register and also your right to vote, no one can force that upon you however we do encourage you to partake in this first democratic process since 2006. We have lowered the voting age to 18, partake by having your voices heard out there. There's no point complaining later on about the members of parliament when you did not partake in the process when you had the chance to.
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