Shamima Ali. Photo: Supplied/FWCC
A renowned human rights activist in Fiji says there is a need for more female candidates in the upcoming general election.
Shamima Ali, who is also the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre Coordinator, says the improvement of FijiFirst and SODELPA in their number of female candidates compared to previous years is great, but more needs to be done to attract women into leadership positions.
In the 2018 elections, 56 of the 235 candidates were women - less than one quarter of candidates.
According to the 2018 Electoral Commission data, voter turnout for men and women was almost equal with 50.37 percent male and 49.63 percent female voters casting their ballots.
Ali said those figures should be reflected in the number of female candidates in this election.
Community worker to stand for opposition
One prominent female candidate will be social worker Sashi Kiran who has resigned from her role at the Foundation for Rural Integrated Enterprises & Development (FRIEND) to stand at the December 14 election for the National Federation Party (NFP).
Sashi Kiran at the headquarters of FRIEND in Fiji Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
Since founding FRIEND in 2001, Kiran has lead initiatives focused on social, health and economic empowerment to improve the livelihoods of thousands of people living in vulnerable communities.
Kiran is among one of the most familiar and respected community workers in Fiji, and is widely admired as a voice for the grassroots people.
Her move is expected to boost the NFP's political fortunes as it tries to defeat the ruling FijiFirst party which has been in power since 2014.
First independent candidate received
Fiji's elections office says it received the first nomination from an independent candidate to contest the election.
There were no independents during the previous poll in 2018.
The country has an open list proportional representation electoral system, and political parties and independents must meet a 5 percent threshold of total votes cast to get elected into parliament.
According to political commentators, Fiji's electoral laws favour bigger parties, and the smaller parties and independent candidates have a more difficult task.
But elections chief Mohammed Saneem said the nomination by the independent candidate indicates "greater confidence in the electoral platform and greater interest amongst individuals to participate in the electoral process" by contesting as candidates.
Candidate nominations will end on November 14.
Meanwhile, high school students have had their external examination dates rescheduled so that they don't clash with the election.
End-of-year school examination dates have been shuffled so they will all be completed by December 13.
