Dear Campaigners for Free Elections

We have witnessed national elections in Thailand, India, Indonesia, and Afghanistan so far this year. Fiji will add its name to this list on 17 September.

These will be our first elections under a new constitution which was developed under a regime which took power in 2006. We will have a unicameral parliament, a different way of voting, and only a day to do it in.

These elections will be monitored by a Multinational Observation Group (MOG) co-led by Australia, India, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea and comprising Brazil, Iran, Israel, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. The European Union, which provided the majority of observers during the 2006 elections, were not invited to participate in a separate mission this time.

The terms of reference of the MOG cover evaluations of:

• the functions and operations of the Fiji Elections Office;
• the electronic voter registration process, compiling the Register of Voters, and the voter list;
• voter education campaigns, including those conducted by the Fiji Elections Office;
• processes of alternative means of voting;
• the nomination and registration of candidates, and the conduct of political parties;
• election day operations;
• the vote counting process, results, and the dissemination of them;
• the resolution of disputes throughout the electoral cycle;
• the reconciliation of all ballot papers; and
• whether Fiji has freely voted and the outcome broadly represents the will of voters.

These details were made public on the signing of documents by the Acting Australian High Commissioner, Mr Gen Miles, earlier this month.

I hope our monitoring is as robust as it is and has been in other countries wanting free elections, and I write, here and now, with others here and abroad, and those working for the same in other countries.

In solidarity
Sereima Savu