Pacific Media Watch

8 November 2012

FIJI: Poll registration impresses visiting US journalist

President Obama's reelection 2012 speech. Video: ABCNews
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Tevita Vuibau

SUVA (The Fiji Times / Pacific Media Watch): The enthusiasm shown among locals to vote in the 2014 Fiji General Elections has "blown away" award winning US journalist Lea Thompson.

Speaking to guests gathered at the US Embassy in Suva, Thompson said the sheer numbers that turned out to register was proof that people in Fiji wanted a say in their government.

Thompson made the comments as the people of America made their voices heard, choosing to return President Barack Obama to the White House for his second four-year term in their nation's highest office.

Locally, about 480,000 people out of an estimated 600,000 eligible voting population registered to vote and Thompson said this was evidence of the character of the population.

"I must tell you we have a term in the United States called 'blown away'. I was blown away that so many Fijians have said I want to vote," Thompson said.

"I think it says a lot about this country and a lot about the people in this country who want to vote and they want to choose who they want to live under and I think they want to have a voice," she said.
 

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