Fiji Sun: Australia, New Zealand volunteers will help in our voter registration

May 19, 2012 Posted by: newsroom
By Caroline Ratucadra

Three specialists will be leading the initiative to register voters for the upcoming national elections in 2014.

By supplying the expertise, the Australian and New Zealand governments have combined efforts with the Government to create a deployment plan for the upcoming electronic voter registration system.

This is scheduled to begin in early June.  Joining his two overseas counterparts will be Major Isoa Loanakadavu of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces who will lead the team. He will be joined by William Hogan, an Australia-based electoral operations consultant with the UN/UNDP, and Mark Jones, manager operations at the Electoral Enrollment Center in New Zealand.

The team will work in collaboration with the Canadian EVR firm CODE, Inc.

Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said; “For the first time in Fiji’s history,  Government is guaranteeing universal suffrage- one person, one value, one vote.

“Comprehensive and thought-out logistical planning is necessary to ensure that each and every Fijian has the opportunity and ability to register,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said

“The involvement of outside expertise demonstrates once again that Government is willing to work with international partners for the benefit of all Fijians.”
The electronic voter registration will begin on July 3 in Suva, where Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama will receive the first voter registration card.

Registration will run for eight weeks at centres across the country.