Vote counting underway in Fiji

Transcript

Vote counting has started in Fiji in the country's first election in eight years.

Polling centres closed at six o'clock last night and the turnout appears high.

Sally Round is in Suva.

SALLY ROUND: Polling closed at six o'clock and the elections supervisor Mohammed Saneem came out pretty much at six o'clock on the dot to tell the waiting media that polls had closed and that polling during the afternoon had been a lot quieter than the morning. There had seemed to be a big morning rush, a lot of people waiting and queuing in the searing heat, waiting to cast their ballot. But polling stations did quieten off quite considerably in the afternoon.

JOHNNY BLADES: So is there any idea of when results could be expected?

SR: Well the elections supervisor says that the first results, the provisional results, could be expected around about nine o'clock. And those results will be going up straight away on huge electronic boards here in the centre and also at the headquarters over the road. And also people will be able to go down to the polling venues where they voted to see results directly at the polling venues.

JB: So counting's underway now and it goes through the night and so forth?

SR: Yes it does but as I say, they're expecting some results at  nine o'clock because of course there are only five hundred people voting at each polling venues so there's a relatively small amount of votes to be counted at each of the venues. And then it's a matter of those numbers being sent through to the election headquarters and added to the tally.

JB: Have you managed to hear from any of the observers about what they've observed?

SR: Well, the co-leader of the multinational observer group, Peter Reith, has been speaking to the media and he said that he's been speaking to people out and about, and he's pretty pleased with what he's seen. He asked them if they've been able to make up their minds freely and they told him yes. he says it seems like it's been a good, spirited affair.

JB: Was there a bit of an energy, you know, this is history being made today, out there?

SR: What I noticed really was the earnestness of what was happening. People were very serious, they took the job very seriously and were very keen to cast their vote. There were huge queues outside some of the polling stations that I went to in Nadi. People waiting and queuing in the searing heat, as I said, carrying babies and the odd umbrella to protect them from the sun. Very keen to get in their and cast their vote.