ADDITIONAL FUNDS FOR 2006 GENERAL ELECTIONS

(Mar 15th, 2006 No. 026)

Cabinet has approved the provision of additional funds totalling $7,665,129 for the Elections Office for the 2006 General Elections.

The funds will be redeployed from within the 2006 National Budget.

Cabinet based this decision on a submission by the Minister for Finance and National Planning, Ratu Jone Kubuabola.

Ratu Jone explained that the additional funds would help Government's effort in increasing polling stations and supply of provisional rolls in rural areas.

The additional funds approved for all the Divisions would cater for payment of different types of allowances during polling, training, counting and country allowances, hotel accommodation, airfares, fuel and oil, hire of transportation, hire of sound system and halls, and other miscellaneous expenses.

Ratu Jone said that Government is committed to a transparent, free and fair General Elections, hence the Elections Office is seeking additional funds to further enhance accessibility to voters in remote areas by having more polling stations.

In previous General Elections, voters in rural and remote areas who opted not to vote generally attributed this to inaccessibility of polling stations.

Therefore, to enable all eligible and registered voters to vote more polling stations will be set up.”

He said that more polling stations obviously meant more polling teams assigned to each station and increase in all elections related expenses.

The Electoral Commission has also approved for the first time that provisional rolls be circulated to all Divisions.

Additional funding is thus required to disseminate the provisional rolls all over Fiji.”

-END-