Come rain or shine, Fijians vote

– Fijians went to the polls yesterday for only the second time since a 2006 coup, with former military strongman Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama confident of winning a second term, even as heavy rain and flooding meant some voting was delayed.

Bainimarama, who leads the Fiji First party, seized power in the bloodless 2006 coup that resulted in the former British colony being suspended from the Commonwealth and isolated

Sydney

diplomatically.

He stood down from the military to run as a civilian in Fiji’s 2014 elections, winning in a landslide. His main opponent this time is Sitiveni Rabuka, another former military leader who staged two coups in 1987.

The nation of more than 300 South Pacific islands has been welcomed back to the international community since the 2006 coup and subsequent election and even enjoyed a visit from Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, in October.

Torrential rain greeted voters yesterday and elections supervisor Mohammed Saneem said polling booths in some areas had to be relocated or voting rescheduled to a later date because of the weather.

Nearly 8 000 voters were affected in the nation of roughly 910 000 people, with 26 polling booths at 23 venues closed, Saneem said on Facebook. – Reuters