Sakeo Moce
Overall, the session was very informative and insightful. We had initially set up the conference room at Tanoa Plaza International Hotel in a classroom structure but Mr Saneem suggested that we arrange the chairs close to each other and in a round-table discussion format. I thought this was cool as it allowed us to sit with him and listen to his Talanoa.
Talanoa Begins
Mr Saneem started the Talanoa by highlighting the current
social cultural and socio economic context in Fiji, the role of governments in
addressing the needs of the people, and some of the good progress and tangible
changes that he observed overtime from when he was young to the Fiji of today.
He then briefly talked about the National General Election and its role in
effecting change in society and how it’s important for young people to
participate in the whole process.
He said that youths can be candidates, polling agents,
managing polling venues and most importantly youths needed to cast their vote.
He mentioned that the youngest candidate is 21 years old.
He highlighted the role and the importance of youth to
challenge the norms in society where some people always look at young people
as immature, lack the experience and knowledge but overlooked the fact that
young people are the torch bearers of the future, bring with them the energy,
the excitement, dedication, willingness and the new ways of thinking to
contribute positively to the development of society through the electoral
process and beyond.
Saneem asked the youth leaders if they can stop being
the biggest cheer leaders but advocate for their engagement in leadership
position. He highlighted that the youngest polling venue manager in this year
general election is an 18 years old individual who had participated well during
the series of training they conducted Fiji.
He highlighted that some political parties objected to
this saying that 18 years old is too young and should not be managing polling
booths, to which he replied 18 years old is capable of doing and achieving
anything provided they are trained and supported well.
SOE also highlighted and explained very briefly the
electoral process, starting from voter registration, how the voting booth will
be set up, how voting will take place, how the ballot papers will be managed
before and after it has been used, how it will be stored, how voting and ballot
papers will be monitored, how it will be counted, the role of polling agents
and observers and how election results will be finalised and announced. All
these information according to him is available in FEO website.
He also shared his concerns about the lack of interest
from people to cast their votes during elections. He believed that some people registered
with their office just for the sake of getting the voter ID cards and not
necessarily to use it for voting during election day. He shared stories of a
Bouncer from a Night Club in Suva who came to him with an envelope full of Fiji
Voter ID card belonging to some young people who forgot to collect it from the Night
Club Bouncer when they checked in. He mentioned that another person came to him
with a box of voter ID card because people forgot to collect it after being
served at the counter.
He also highlighted that out of the 9,000 plus people
registered from overseas, only 400+ have applied for postal voting.
SOE responses to some our questions
If there is a Natural Disaster (God Forbid) then adjustments to the
Fiji General Election may happen and there are various factors such
as severity of the natural disasters, recovery time etc will need to be
considered in making any decisions in response to a crisis.
When asked about what could be some of the reasons for low voter turnout – he said that we just have to wait after the elections to learn about the reasons from the public about the electoral process. He said that in order for people to trust the process, political parties need to accept the final election results when it comes out. This spurred a lot of discussion and the youth leaders continued to be so inquisitive to learn about what can be done to address the low turnout that seems to be the trend in Fiji Elections.
The SOE requested everyone to share one or two matters about what
motivates them to go and cast their votes during election. Several young people
spoke their minds and talked about things like employment opportunities,
educations etc and Mr Saneem spoke about the benefits of voting and he gave an
example of how he wrote a letter to the SDL government in 2006 requesting if
the prize of "normal" meal in McDonalds can be reduced, and in that year, the
Fiji Government actually reduced the prize of a meal serve from $7+ to $5+.
In my opinion, all the possible reasons given by the
people as to why they don’t want to vote is valid, as they are sharing it from
their owned lived experience. In order to address this, firstly, we need to
organise this raw data into a body of knowledge through a proper and robust
methodology, otherwise known as doing research about it, to investigate the
factors influencing low turnout and the predisposing factors that influence the
self-efficacy of the electorate in order to turn up and cast their votes during
elections. Secondly, we need to organise the knowledge together to develop
evidence-based strategies that would address this underlying issue of low turnout and the root causes through the construction of Theory of Change. This will
also allow us to identify the critical assumptions that contributes to the
success of the interventions, the risk that would hinder its success and also
the partners and stakeholders that needs to work together to change the situation
in terms of making strategic interventions that would increase the
participation rate during the election day(s). In fact, I shared this with a
friend who also attended this talanoa.
When asked about what’s the issue with the “Rock the
Vote Campaign”, - he mentioned that under the Fiji campaign law no one is to
engage in activities that bribe people to vote for them. It is illegal.
He added that Rock the Vote or Bring the Vote campaign
is the US concept and it usually organised by Civil Society Organisations. He
mentioned that CSO should be able to implement the concept in Fiji, but
provided that apply for approval first from FEO just to make sure that
everything about the program and/or project is in conformity to the current
electoral laws of Fiji. He plead with the youths to encourage their friends and
family to cast their votes during election.
Saneem described and explained the process of voting and what
happens at different stages. He encouraged people to be observers and polling
agents from their political parties to assist and observe the whole process. He
highlighted that it’s important for polling agents and observers to be trained
so that they know how to observe the process and don’t have to make unnecessary
remarks. He also highlighted that he organised a similar talanoa with political
parties to allow them to have accurate information about the whole electoral
process.
We would have asked a lot of questions but the time
was so short and we had to end the talanoa, have a group picture and enjoyed
finger foods and network with everyone presents during the talanoa.
