Nurses Use Touch Screen Voting
The Fijian Elections Office has for the first time introduced Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), which is solely for trade union elections.
Industrial Election Co-ordinator Aisea Wainiqolo speaking at Novotel Suva Lami Bay on Friday said: “Fiji Nursing Association is the first union to have the election conducted through the touch screen voting machine.”
Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem said in terms of the analysis of the usage, the voting machines were simple to use.
“While the Fijian Elections Office has noted that it will have to implement a more rigorous awareness and training exercise on the usage of the machines; the overall feedback from the voters was that it was easy and convenient. “The FEO will continue to use Electronic Voting Machines for Trade Union Elections in order to expose Fijians to more advanced means of voting and counting in Fiji.”
The voting was done to elect new national council members for the Central, Northern, Western and Eastern divisions of the Fiji Nursing Association (FNA).
He said there are 1304 members of FNA, 324 members had voted through postal voting and 980 were expected to vote within the two days (Friday and Saturday).
Lilieta Navuto, a registered nurse, voted by ballot paper last week at her work at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital said: “I didn’t know most of the candidates with their names, but I know them by their face and through this ballot paper voting it was very difficult for me to vote for without knowing whom we give the vote to,” Ms Navuto said.
She said it takes time to vote through the ballot paper. Another voter Filomena Vasu, a registered nurse at the Levuka Hospital, said this was the first time she had used a touch-screen voting machine.
“It is easy to use the electronic voting machine rather than the ballot paper, where it saves time and we can also see the candidates photo, for whom are we voting for,” Ms Vasu said.