People's Alliance Deputy Leader and candidate Lynda Tabuya.

The Fijian Elections Office has clarified an allegation made by the People’s Alliance Deputy Leader and candidate Lynda Tabuya.

Tabuya in a social media post on Facebook urges voters who are voting by postal ballot not to seal their envelopes until they are at the DHL office because they will have to check all documents that come through.

She claims that if the envelopes are sealed, DHL officers will ask them to open their postal envelopes in front of them, indicating that the postal ballots have been tampered with and the votes are null and void.

The Fijian Elections Office, in its attempt to correct this misinformation, says DHL does not open any postal ballot envelopes, as has been alleged by Tabuya.

The FEO says for all shipments that have been sent from Fiji via DHL to all international postal voters, they have had DHL personnel conduct the security check in the presence of FEO personnel.

It says these shipments/flyers contain the returning pre-printed DHL flyer together with a DHL letter for instructions for arranging the pickup of returning envelopes.

The Elections Office adds that the postal ballot paper is placed inside the secret envelope, which is then sealed by the voter and placed inside the transmission envelope.

This is then placed into the return envelope, which has the FEO address for delivery in Fiji.

The return envelope is then placed inside the returning DHL flier, which has a pre-printed airway bill number.

The FEO adds that DHL will pick up the flyer and transport it to the delivery address in Fiji.

It says postal voters need to advise DHL that they have the pre-printed DHL flyer containing their postal ballot, in which case the flyer will not be opened for a security check.

It further says that for security reasons, a flyer may only be opened if it does not have the DHL pre-printed label.

In the event that any flyer is required to be opened by DHL, for a security check, it will be done so in the presence of the shipper.

The FEO says the secret envelope containing the postal ballot itself will never be opened by DHL.