SUVA, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Fiji has a total of 630, 862 registered voters eligible for the coming general elections which will be held on Nov. 14 this year.
According to Fiji Broadcasting Corporation (FBC), Fiji's Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem said Monday this was the final number following the conclusion of the postal application exercise.
Saneem said they received 10,819 applications for postal voting. however, only 10,816 applications were approved as two applications were rejected and one was withdrawn. All postal dispatches will conclude on Wednesday.
Saneem said that 69,466 voters were eligible to vote during pre-poll while 550,580 voters are eligible to vote on the Election Day.
They have started packing pre-poll materials for the North, Fiji's second largest island on Monday, while the Eastern, Western and Central parts of Fiji will follow, he said, adding that they will start packing Election Day materials as soon as pre-polling packing was completed.
He confirmed that there will be 582 pre-polling venues in which they will be running 587 polling stations.
On the Election Day, they will be operating 854 polling venues and within that, they will be operating 1,567 polling stations. Meanwhile, those voting via postal have until Nov. 14 at 6:00 p.m. local time to return their ballot papers.
The Fijian Elections Office has approved a total of 234 candidates for the island nation's general elections next month. The FijiFirst, the island nation's ruling party led by Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, has 51 candidates while the Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA), the opposition party led by former Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, also has 51 candidates.
On Sept. 30 this year, Fijian President Jioji Konrote announced to dissolve the parliament immediately for the general elections.
According to his order, the registration of voters for the election stopped on Oct. 1 this year and the Fijian Elections Office stopped receiving the nominations of candidates by midday Oct. 15 this year.
This is the second time for Fijians to head to the polls under the 2013 Fijian Constitution.
Fiji's latest general election was held in September 2014, the first ever since the country's 2006 coup.
Currently, Fiji has a population of over 880,000.
