Close to 50 thousand people have cast their votes in the pre-polls which ended yesterday.

Supervisor for Elections, Mohammed Saneem in announcing the preliminary figures says the voter turnout has been better than the global average.

_"Our preliminary figures are that 49505 Fijians have voted in the prepolling exercise. We expect this number to rise when we have all the infor, as I have said, the figures from the 10th September is still not with us.. Ladies and Gentleman, this represents 77%, a number considerably higher than the global average in countries where voting is voluntary and not mandatory like it is in Australia."

However Saneem admits, it hasn’t been all smooth sailing

“We acknowledge that there were a number of learning moments for the elections office during the prepoll process, particularly surrounding voter awareness and registration details.”

Saneem reiterating to the public that those voters who have lost their Voter Identification card have until today 5pm to have a replacement issued.