Fiji’s Supervisor of Elections is confident September’s much-awaited general election will proceed smoothly despite plans for all voting to take place on just one day.

Fiji will hold its first democratic elections since the coup of 2006 on September 17 this year.

In the lead up to the vote, the elections office is recruiting 14,000 people to work at polling booths to ensure the process runs efficiently and smoothly.

Mohammed Saneem says the aim is to recruit locals from the areas where the polling booths will be.

“We are trying to build more awareness amongst Fijians,” he said. “That’s why we are allowing more Fijians to participate in the elections and to see the election process.

“To see the counting and do the counting and to be part of the polling time.”

Saneem says recent visits to the Australia Electoral Commission reinforced the idea that Fiji will be able to successfully complete voting across the country in just one day.

In the past, elections have been held over several days.

Saneem says changes have been made to make sure the voting process is more efficient.

“In the 2006 election at a polling venue a person could be the 2000th voter out of a possible 2500 voters,” he said.

“The same person at the same polling venue will now vote in a different polling station and will be one of 500 voters.

“So we have split the queue to allow more polling stations within a venue and to allow more people to vote at the same time, by having more polling stations and having at least three to four polling screens.”

Meanwhile, the leader of a Fiji political group which claims the same name as the regime-backed Fiji First Party says the Fiji authorities have not properly investigated its claim.

Last week, the Registrar of Political Parties rejected the group’s claim, saying there was no evidence their party was ever registered.

Anit Singh says his group used to be the Girmit Heritage Party but changed its name to Fiji First back in 2008 to have wider appeal.

He says the previous elections supervisor, Felicity Heffernan, led them through the process including dealing with an objection.

Singh says the present registrar, Mohammed Saneem, should have access to all the information from that period.

“We are complaining about protecting our intellectual property. I mean our name has been taken and used by somebody else and he’s treating us like we have nothing to complain about.

“We really feel short-changed. Where is the discussion of findings or chance to counter-respond?

In fielding complaints and objections about the regime’s Fiji First Party, election authorities have countered by saying the objections themselves may have contravened the law.

Registrar Saneem confirmed Fiji First’s registration late last week, rejecting the six complaints it had received.

The complaints included a claim that a former Fiji First office holder Bijai Prasad, had lied over not having a conviction.

Saneem, described the conviction as irrelevant and he said the complainant, Dr Tupeni Baba of the Sodelpa Party, was himself in breach of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act by raising it.

Saneem also rejected an objection to the use of the offical Fiji flag by Fiji First in its logo.

He said no law prohibits the use of the flag and in any case Fiji First was using a variant of the flag.