Jone Dakuvula 1 hr I wrote this letter in regards to the pre-polling that has left alot of people confused about the significance of September 17th voting day in relation to pre-polling. I received the following responses from various assessors: Jone Dakuvula says: There has been a lot of confusion caused by the use of the term pre poll by the Elections office because it normally means a differernt poll ie the Opinion poll. It was never clarified from the beginning that polling actually starts next week on Wednesday 3rd September and not on 17th. Even the news media is ignorant of the meaning Everybody understood this is a one day poll on 17th and hardly anybody knew that it starts two weeks earlier. Most people I talked to have jumped to the conclusion that this is a sort of deliberate ploy to rig the Election as they think it is dishonesty.That is what my campaign agents in Vanualevu say after I told them this evening because it has competely buggered up our campaign plans. Voting is going on whilst election campaigns are in full swing .This makes a nonsense of the two days no campaign prohibition before final 17th poll. If we in Suva are ignorant of this decision what chance is there that these voters know that they be will be voting on those days?.My guess they will be surprised when the police and military officers turn up at the polling stations on the day and time for their votes to be lodged. They will feel intimidated and of course they will be compelled to cast their votes for the government party The organisation of this Election is a complete shambes and many people believe the shambles is deliberate.. It does not even take account of those ordinary peoples daily schedule of activities. Please raise this concern with members of the Commission and the Supervisor of Elections Ganesh Chand says: This happens in all democracies.. in the larger ones, they open it up about a month earlier... [J: That some parties are unaware of this - well what can voters expect of them if they were to be elected to parliament!!] - My response: Well in Fiji voting used to take place over a period of days and people were used to this.It is the responsibility of the Electoral Commission and Supervisor of Elections to clearly explain the processes of a new Electoral system. When the regime spokesman Aiyaz Khaiyum started claiming this new electoral system will require only one day voting,there was a lot of questions asked about the practicality of it and he never said then there it would still be like in the past.Every one accepted his arrogant, repeated and misleading assertion this would be a one day poll.The public education and process of organising this election is rushed and confusing, generating much anger and distrust that are carry overs from the regimes rejection and suppression of the Yash Ghai Commision Report in 2012 Crozbie Walsh says: Jone, I cant help but agree with Ganesh. The first press conference I can find that mentioned it was on May 1 when the SoE talked about pre polls in remote areas but its likely it was mentioned earlier. I only did a cursory search. It was also mentioned twice by the Fiji Times on August 1 and 2. The FEO website mentions it, and the venues were gazetted on Sunday. I see its mentioned today on the NFP website. I dont know what the NGOs, political parties and the FEO voter education sessions did, but surely pre polling would have been mentioned. As you know, applications to pre poll closed today , but theres plenty of time to vote, from Sept 3 to 12th. - My response: Croz it is not the responsibility of NGOs to educate the electorate about the new electoral system, especially when the govt banned these activities with heavy fines and aid donors had cancelled NGO projects for such activites . Political parties too have been prohibited from such activities.The political environment here is not like in NZ or USA . Ganeshs attitude is familiar but yours Croz does not demonstrate sufficient independence of the regimes line. Thoughts anyone?? Like
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 04:04:48 +0000
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