THE number of people who did not vote during the 2014 and 2018 general elections is concerning, Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA) leader Viliame Gavoka told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Human Rights yesterday.
He was accompanied by SODELPA general secretary Emele Duituturaga and deputy party leader Filimoni Vosarogo. Mr Gavoka claimed that in 1999, 89 per cent of Fiji’s population voted, 87 per cent in 2006, 83 per cent in 2014 and it further decreased to 71 per cent in 2018.
He said the trend was a concern because it showed that people had lost confidence in the general elections.
“SODELPA is worried about this trend because it continued to decline,” he said.
“In 2014, there were 91,000 people who did not vote. Then four years later in 2018, there were 171,000 who did not vote.
“This is a serious concern because it shows that our electoral process is not successful, leading to a huge part of the population not exercising their rights in the general elections.”
He said it should be questioned why a huge number of people did not vote during the 2014 and 2018 general elections.
“We need to put confidence-building measures to help gain confidence so that people could exercise their rights every four years. We term the elections as the moment of truth, it is sacred to every Fijian because it is in that room where people will decide on how they want their nation to be governed in the next four years.
“It is very unfortunate that 91,000 people did not get their moment of truth and 171,000 in 2018.”
