Educate yourselves, register now and make your vote count

Knowing the elections process is an important step for people.

There have been a number of theories floating around that an electronic system will allow for rigging of votes.

Far from it.

In 2014, there was no electronic counting of the votes. We do not have that system in Fiji right now. There is a system in the United States of America whereby people go into the voting booths, press a button to vote for the Republicans, Democrats or an Independent. Counting is done in real time.

Do not confuse the Fijian voting system with the American one. There is a concerted effort to cast aspersions on the Fijian Elections Office right now.

It is being done as an exercise which some people plan to fall back on if they fail to win a seat.

Create doubt now, revisit it after losing out at the polls.

There is no electronic counting system in Fiji. That was the case in 2014 and this will be the case now.

How will counting be different from

2014? Not at all. How will this be different from counting votes before 2014?

The only difference is that instead of all boxes coming in from all over the country to a main count centre, after polling closes, the Fijian Elections Office officials will start their counting at the various polling stations.

They will then telephone the main centre which is expected to be set up at the Vodafone Arena in Suva to give in the results of their count.

After this, provisional results will be announced. After the results have been phoned in, the presiding officer will bring the protocol of results to the national count centre.

This will be entered as the final results. The protocol of result is the result at every polling station which is signed off by the presiding officer and observers such as international observers, media observers and/ or Political Party agents.

People will still tick or circle or cross their candidate’s number. They will still physically put their votes into the ballot boxes. It is a very simple process.

Not very different from how counting was done previously. All the election day votes cast will be counted under the watchful eyes of all political parties’ agents if they have their party agents present.

So please do not be swayed by fake news that the ‘counting machines’ have been infected by some virus. There are no counting machines so there is no possibility of it being hacked or infected with a virus.

The conspiracy theorists are watching too many spy movies. It is our civic duty to vote. There is still time to register. Make your vote count.

So please do not be swayed by fake news that the ‘counting machines’ have been infected by some virus. There are no counting machines so there is no possibility of it being hacked or infected with a virus.