Fijians working overseas under the Pacific Australian Labor Mobility (PALM) scheme should be given the opportunity to vote in municipal council elections.
This was raised by Nausori Town ratepayers following a presentation by Fijian Elections Office (FEO) acting manager legal Mesake Dawai at a public consultation on Monday regarding municipal council elections and amendments to Local Government Act 1972.
Mr Dawai said Section 11(c) of the Local Government Act stipulated that a person was qualified to vote in a municipal council election if he/she had resided for a continuous period of 12 months within the boundaries of that municipality.
“When it comes to property owners, we’ve gotten this question a lot from many of the places that we’ve been to where they’re residing in one municipality but own properties within other municipal boundaries, well you can only register from the property that you’re residing from — that you’re currently occupying,” Mr Dawai said.
A ratepayer living in Nakasi said PALM scheme workers should be allowed to vote since they were contributing to the growth of the economy.
“Fiji is slowly becoming global, a lot of people are coming in and out,” he said.
He said the Fijian diaspora was contributing to the economy by sending remittances back.
“Perhaps, the Act should include those who are out of the country for a maximum of 12 months.”
Another gentleman who lives within the Nausori Town boundary, said landowners and tenants who had gone overseas under employment schemes facilitated by the National Employment Centre (NEC), should be allowed to vote.
“In terms of the general elections, the government also acknowledged our citizens who were away and they were also given the opportunity to vote,” he said.
Mr Dawai said all the suggestions would be taken on board, after which the Local Government elections working group would make a presentation to Cabinet.
The date of the 2023 local government elections is yet to be confirmed.
