FEO SURVEY REVEALS:
Large number of Fijians have little interest in politics
Atotal of 58.64 per cent of Fijians who voted during the 2018 General Election had little interest in politics. This is according to a recent survey conducted by the Fijian Elections Office.
Of the 14,137 participants surveyed, over one fifth (21.62 per cent) who voted had no interest at all in politics, with the percentage of respondents who take no interest in politics being higher than those who had a lot of interest (19.74 per cent).
Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem said in relation to the interest in politics or the disinterest in politics the electoral framework covers the protection of voters by having a 48 hour blackout period.
He said even if voters are affected by the way the political campaigns take place they have two days to recover from that before casting their vote.
“This should be an indication to stakeholders on how they need to review their political activities so as to encourage voter turnout and not to discourage it,” Mr Saneem said.
One way voters get discouraged is through the spread of misinformation.
The Elections Office is looking forward to their month-long drive next year around the country where Fijians will have the opportunity to amend their voter details.
Voters are required by law to amend their details within 21 days of changing their address.
Fake accounts
Voters will need to become fact checkers when it comes to information regarding the elections, Mr Saneem said.
He said the Elections Office would build capacity around this through traditional media as they are the powerhouses of information in any jurisdiction and they have greater responsibility in terms of the information they publish.
“We will be working very closely with the traditional media to empower voters to become the fact checkers. They themselves will be able to deduce the fake news and fake accounts,” he said.
“Going into 2022, we will be able to build capacity for all Fijian social media users to be able to point out information that is correct, factual and fake news or designed to create disinformation. The FEO website and social media pages are always going to be the primary source of correct information in relation to elections at any given point in time. If it’s not coming from us and it’s related to elections please check with us.”
Re-appointment
On his reappointment as Supervisor of Elections for a term of five years, Mr Saneem said holding the position was not an easy task as there are a lot of challenges. “Generally in this position there is a lot of expectation and the onus on the person is to organise a free, fair and credible election, but one key aspect is that the person must run the election in compliance with the law,” he said.
“It is not their duty to conduct election as the law should be, but as the law is. The person must be very effective in terms of enforcement of the law and what it really says. “Since 2014 my effort has always been to comply with the law and if there are any disagreements I leave it to the electoral commission and the court.”
Mr Saneem said the 2022 election would be run in a very different environment so they are still trying to figure out how COVID-19 would play in the next election.