YOUR VOTE COUNTS Ballot papers hit press

Saneem starts off with 20,000 postal voting ballot papers

THE first batch of ballot papers for the 2022 General Election rolled off the press at Star Printery Ltd, Raiwai, Suva yesterday.

Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem said they would start off with 20,000 postal voting ballot papers, then proceed to print pre-poll and polling day papers.

He said ballot papers for prepol and Election Day, compiled into books of 50, would undergo quality assurance before being packed into cartons and transported to the Fijian Elections Office (FEO) warehouse.

“It is essential for free and fair elections that ballot papers are designed in a manner which is easily understandable for voters,” Mr Saneem said.

He said some of the features of the ballot papers included clarity in the layout, the use of clear typefaces, the presence of clear instructions on the ballot paper, a large inner font size and the box space where the voter will mark the ballot paper and the space in between the boxes for each number.

Mr Saneem said the ballot papers were produced for 55 members of Parliament and voters would mark by circle, tick or cross.

He said in the 2022

General Election, FEO staff members would not be required to authenticate ballot papers with a signature and stamp “because right from production, the ballot paper has security features built into it”.

“This facility will be under 24hour police guard and FEO staff, and this will remain right up till elections.

“For security and safety, all transportation of ballot material will be under strict custody and guard of the police together with FEO staff presence in all these vehicles.

“We have a secure storage facility inside our warehouse and we will be keeping all the ballot papers inside that secure facility under CCTV surveillance, political party presence and police force presence – ballot papers will only be removed from the warehouse when we have to start packing it into the ballot paper transport container.”