By Lice Movono
VERY poor turnout at polling stations across the country has changed the momentum of the Fijian general elections with polling hours and the campaign blackout period now extended.
Earlier this afternoon, Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem announced that 7852 voters from 23 venues would not be able to vote by 6pm with their polling stations affected by the current weather system.
Saneem made an appeal to voters in other polling stations to cast their ballots and said it was critical that they did.
“The turnout so far has not been very good, we have recorded very low turnout in various polling stations in urban centres,” he said.
Even in the larger urban areas with thousands expected, Saneem said less than half had turned up.
There were 559,038 voters expected across the country today while 70,519 voted in pre-poll.
There is a trough of low pressure and a tropical disturbance with associated heavy rains affecting the entire group and expected to do so well into the weekend.
Saneem appealed to the voters to get into a polling station queue by 6pm today in order to cast their ballots.
Free buses has been offered to get voters from surrounding Suva and Nasinu suburbs.
