30 Jul 2014

Mock elections aid Fiji voters

2:00 pm on 30 July 2014

A Fiji women's group is using mock elections and exercises in plain language to clear up confusion over how to vote in the country's September elections.

The Fiji Women's Rights Movement has produced a tool kit to help educate voters and is conducting sessions around the country.

Sally Round has been attending a meeting in the Nausori area.

"The 50 women gathered in the shade in this rural Indo-Fijian community have sample ballot papers on their laps and a booklet nearby explaining what to do. The NGO's research has shown marginalised Indo-Fijian and young women are most in need of such help. They're chatting and laughing as they test each other on knowledge of the polls and learn how to mark the ballot paper of numbered boxes without making it invalid. The Fiji Women's Rights Movement says the pressure is on to take such sessions to as many people as possible."