The Fijian Elections Office (FEO) today launched its own television channel, Channel 14, on the Walesi Platform.
Set up to run until after the 2022 General Election in December, Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem says the platform will show FEO-produced content, at a lower cost, as part of efforts to raise awareness and educate Fijian voters on the electoral process.
Launching the channel at their Toorak office in Fiji’s capital city of Suva, Mr. Saneem, described it as historic, adding that the platform means an additional exclusive dissemination mechanism for the FEO to prominently show election-related information that “voters need to know in order to participate in the general election.”
Via the platform, the FEO will show events such as a replay of the national ball draw, and the national candidate list by a political party among others.
Costing the FEO a fee of $25,000 of its $1.8 million marketing budget, Mr. Saneem says it is still cheaper when weighed against costs they would have accrued if they were to show the same materials, some of which run for 15 minutes, and in the case of the National Ball Draw, more than two hours, via the commercial television stations.
“If I have to do the national candidates list that we are currently playing on repeat mode, if I have to do it on any of the stations, it is going to cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars. So, this is a channel that the FEO is using, it is costing us a very little amount of money and it is going to be available 24/7.”
The channel is one of the various mediums the FEO is using for the first time including the TikTok channel to educate voters on the conduct of the 2022 General Election.
