7 Apr 2006

Fiji ballot teams off to Middle East

4:46 pm on 7 April 2006

Three postal ballot teams from Fiji will travel to the Middle East to collect the votes of Fiji citizens living and working there.

The deputy supervisor of elections, Semi Matalau, has told the Fiji Times the teams will be sent because Fiji does not have any embassy in Kuwait, Iraq, Sinai and other nearby countries.

A team for the Elections Office has just returned to Suva after conducting voter registration there and setting up the polling structure for next month's Fiji general elections.

Thousands of Fiji citizens are employed as private security guards and in other jobs while soldiers are serving in Iraq and the Sinai.

Within Fiji, 15,000 civil servants are being trained to conduct the elections at over 1,100 polling stations.