The Fijian Elections Office says the $20.4 million allocation for the new financial year is what they requested in order to effectively run their operations.
Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem says the FEO is now focused on ensuring that come Election Day they will be more than ready to roll out the mammoth logistic exercise.
“We’re working on electoral processes, we’re working on staffing for the elections, we are conducting training for officials regularly to ensure they’re engaged and we are continuously doing mocks for various processes so we are able to review it, analyse it and make sure that they are all fully functional on the day we have to go.”
Saneem adds around 11 thousand staff will be used to ensure the election is run efficiently.
The FEO’s 2018/2019 budget allocation is a decrease of one point seven million dollars from the previous year.
The reduced budget on the FEO’s operating grant is reflective of the progress already made by the Office in preparation for this year’s General Election.
