From left: Ioane Naivalurua, Sakiusa Bolaira, FijiFirst leader Voreqe Bainimarama, Pramesh Chand and Sitiveni Rabuka

The battle for political superiority enters the last phase today as the nine parties who are trying to form the next government upping the ante.

With the blackout period starting at midnight today, two of the bigger parties, FijiFirst and the People’s Alliance, have been trying to get the support of the majority of the 693,915 registered voters.

Already, the preliminary pre-poll voter turnout stands at 69.63 percent with a total of 54, 244 Fijians having cast their votes.

77, 907 Fijians were registered to vote for pre-polling, meaning 23, 663 people did not vote at the 613 venues.

FijiFirst leader Voreqe Bainimarama is banking on consistency as he eyes a third term as Prime Minister.

He says his work and policies speaks volumes.

“And we don’t change our policies every second day of the week, We started off with one in 2007 which was carried forward by the military government and the FijiFirst carried on with those policies after the election in 2014.”

Bainimarama says his counterpart, Sitiveni Rabuka of the People’s Alliance, never did anything for the people of the North, when he was PM.

Rabuka says he did a lot and claims those things he built are now in a bad state.

“They are all debilitated. They all need a lot of repairs. Repairs that should have been done in the last 16 years.”

However, FijiFirst candidate and former Police Chief, Ioane Naivalurua, says there was a need for Bainimarama to do things to turn Fiji back on track.

“In 2006, he and a few others cast a vision to build a better Fiji. Second, then they created the charter, we created the charter with 11 key pillars.”

PA’s Pramesh Chand does not want the open recruitment merit system, which is currently in place within the public service.

“Another thing that has marginalized our colleagues in Public Service is the open recruitment merit system. This system will go immediately after we come into power”

Former journalist, Sakiusa Bolaira says these types of thinking has been spread around, which is a major source of misinformation, and he experienced this recently in Navua.

“I am not going to vote for FijiFirst because they have taken away the rights of the i-Taukei people. You know I couldn’t hold myself back, I was furious because that used to be my thinking and FijiFirst has changed my life and I am sure all of us today standing with great conviction that FijiFirst is for everyone.”

The two parties will be taking to different parts of the Central Division through their candidates later today as they enter the last stretch before Election Day on Wednesday.