The Electoral Commission of the Republic of Fiji and the Fijian Elections Office (FEO) have reaffirmed that nationwide voter registration will continue as preparations intensify for the country’s next General Election, following Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka’s confirmation that Local Government Elections will now be held after the national poll. The FEO said the decision to press on with outreach work is driven in part by the election window now set between 7 August 2026 and 6 February 2027.
Since the YES Outreach Nationwide Voter Registration and Awareness campaign launched on 4 May 2026, more than 16,000 people have accessed voter services, the FEO reported. Teams have been deployed to villages, settlements, schools, tertiary institutions and workplaces to register new voters, verify existing details and update records ahead of the election period. Officials emphasised that the outreach is both to expand the roll and to ensure voters’ details are accurate before an official election date is issued.
Electoral authorities said work on other key elements is continuing in parallel, including election planning, systems testing and the recruitment of election officials, alongside broader public awareness programmes. The Electoral Commission and the FEO told media they remain on track to complete technical and administrative preparations within the timetable available to them and reiterated their commitment to delivering a transparent, credible and professional electoral process.
The development on the sequencing of polls has practical implications. Earlier FEO briefings had indicated that Local Government Elections would require a separate re-registration exercise and the issuance of new voter cards for those who re-register — a process Supervisor of Elections Ana Mataiciwa outlined at a March briefing. Under that plan, voters who re-register for Local Government polls would receive cards showing polling venues for both local and national elections, while those who do not re-register would still be able to use their existing voter ID for the General Election.
Background figures underline the scale of the task. As of December last year, the national register stood at 705,130 registered voters, with the Central Division the largest cohort, followed by the Western, Northern and Eastern divisions, and an overseas enrolment tally in the thousands, Mataiciwa previously confirmed. Election officials expect that total to rise as the outreach campaign continues and as citizens take advantage of registration opportunities across the islands.
With the Prime Minister’s announcement altering the election sequence, the Electoral Commission and FEO say the timing reinforces the urgency of the current registration push so that voters are on the roll and have up-to-date details regardless of when writs are issued. They have urged eligible Fijians to make use of the ongoing outreach to register or confirm their information ahead of any formal election timetable, and said further statistics on registration progress will be released as the campaign continues.