The Fijian Elections Office is now waiting on the finalization of the Voter Instruction booklet that voters can refer to come Election Day.
Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem says the booklet has been delayed as they did not agree with the pictures that were submitted by the Social Democratic Liberal Party.
Saneem says they had called SODELPA’s General Secretary Adi Litia Qionibaravi to provide them with better pictures of their candidates but she had signed off on the Voter Instruction booklet without making any required amendments.
”Whilst we’re not comfortable with those pictures, we have no time to waste for that and it’s very unfortunate the pictures are not of good quality. Lots of their candidates are very activate on social media and we’ve seen quite better pictures then the ones that we’ve been given – which is why we’re very disappointed.”
The SOE says Adi Litia must pay more attention to these details because once voters are not able to recognize their candidates, fingers will be pointed at the FEO.
”We tried to give them an opportunity but they still didn’t give us better pictures so we have to go with what we have. The Voters instruction booklet will be printed and ready and we’ll make some announcements as to the packing of the postal ballots so we are able to send them out at the soonest.”
He adds that they didn’t receive quality pictures of some twenty-seven SODELPA candidates.
Attempts to get a comment from Adi Litia proved futile.
