Viani Village in Navatu’s Cakaudrove is ready for pre-polling this week.

According to Village Headman Sekonaia Biumaiwai, 210 of the 360 villagers are registered to vote this year.

Biumaiwai says the biggest challenge is getting all these registered voters to cast their ballots on their pre-polling date.

In the 2018 election, 209 villagers were registered to vote, however, according to Biumaiwai, only 96 cast their votes on the day.

Apart from the awareness campaigns conducted by the Fijian Elections Office, Biumaiwai says he has been encouraging the registered voters to exercise their right to vote.

He says one of the main reasons a large number of villagers didn’t vote was because they did not fully understand how the voting system worked.

According to the government, 17,000 Fijians in Cakaudrove did not vote in 2018.

Pre-polling at Viani Village will happen this Wednesday, starting at 7am.