By Timoci Vula in Suva
The People’s Alliance Party took an early lead in the Fiji general election vote tally this evening with a total of 21,810 votes recorded after the completion of counting from 470 of the 2071 polling stations.
The governing FijiFirst Party was in second place with 16,515 votes and SODELPA running third with 3684 votes.
The National Federation Party followed with 3256 votes and Unity Fiji in fifth place with 1688 votes.
The other results by party as at the 5pm update provided by the Fijian Elections Office are:
Fiji Labour Party – 1269
We Unite Fiji Party – 1179
All Peoples Party – 614
New Generation Party – 175
Rajendra Sharma (Independent) – 26
Ravinesh Reddy (Independent) – 21
The top five candidates at that update were:
Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama – 11,248
Sitiveni Ligamamada Rabuka – 6738
Lynda Diseru Tabuya – 1397
Siromi Dokonivalu Turaga – 1048
Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum – 927
Counting continues at the National Count Centre and the next update is due to be provided by the Supervisor of Elections at 10pm.
Timoci Vula is a Fiji Times reporter. Republished with permission.
Fiji’s military will respect electoral process – Kalouniwai
RNZ Pacific reports that the Fiji military commander has rejected a request by opposition party leaders to intervene in a dispute over the country’s election process.
Major-General Jone Kalouniwai said the military (RFMF) as an institution would put its trust in the electoral process.
“I wish to reassure the people of Fiji that the RFMF will not respond to [PAP leader Sitiveni ] Rabuka’s insistence or any political party, that we intervene under our responsibilities from Section 131.2 of the 2013 Constitution,” Kalouniwai said.
“The constitutional responsibility of the RFMF section 131.2 does not make any reference to intervening or getting involved with the electoral processes or management of voting or counting of votes with the assistance of the military.”
Kalouniwai explained that using the military in any form during the electoral process was unconstitutional.
The statement came after a group of opposition party leaders called for a halt to vote counting yesterday, demanding an audit of the country’s electoral system.
It was triggered by an anomaly in provisional results that was displayed on a Fiji Election Office results app on Wednesday night.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz
