Elections

Presidential elections were held here at the beginning of August. The last elections were held in 2003.

In the run up to the election political rallies took place all over the country. They were huge, attracting crowds of up to 150 000 people in some places. Throughout the night before the rallies people would go around the local areas telling people about them and providing buses for them to get there.
The whole country was also decorated in political party colours and tree trunks were painted white when the President visited different areas to welcome him.

The election day itself was very quiet. It was treated like a public holiday. The primary school was the local polling station (see picture). There was music playing and banana leaves at the entrance. Apparently there was a different room for each different community in the area to vote. When an electorate went to vote one of their fingers was marked with a permanent mark and once they had voted another finger was marked, rather than polling cards or endless lists of names. There were no queues of people waiting to vote.

The following day was announced as another public holiday for celebration even though the final result had not been announced but in the end it was a landslide predicted.