PINA

An hour before the close of polling in Fiji, the country’s President has appealed to voters to turn up in large numbers and make their vote count. His plea to the nation echoes the polling update result at 4pm from the Fiji Elections Office which recorded a low voter turn-out of just 285,845 votes cast from 7.30am to 4pm –...

More than 1000 additional Fiji police officers have been deployed around country for the 2022 General Election. Fijian Police Commissioner Brigadier-General Sitiveni Qiliho said the Force was now well positioned for the main polling day for elections. “Approximately 1500 extra police officers deployed today specifically to assist the Fijian Elections Office (FEO),” Brigadier-General Qiliho said. He has also reminded members of the...

The Pacific Islands is joining forces with Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) Canada in an initiative that brings together vulnerable communities and states to call for climate action at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). In the margins of the IMO’s 79th Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) meeting on Tuesday in London, the two groups represented by John Kautave of Tonga and...

Polling in Fiji is now in full swing as the 2022 General Election continues until 6pm today. Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem has so far given the thumbs up to those who turned up early to cast their votes. He said those who haven’t turned up have a few more hours left. “It’s Election Day in Fiji and it comes once every...

--The Australian Foreign Affairs minister, Penny Wong, has drawn a contrast with China’s approach to the Pacific by promising that a new security deal she signed with Vanuatu on Tuesday would be released publicly. Wong, who is leading a bipartisan Australian delegation to the region, also left the door open to pursuing similar deals with other Pacific countries amid growing...

As negotiations between 196 parties continue with the goal of reaching an ambitious post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework to halt biodiversity loss, the Kingdom of Tonga has urged the parties to demonstrate a spirit of compromise beyond national and institutional interests, and to prioritise people and the planet. Tonga’s Director of Environment, with the Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management,...

The Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland, addressed leaders from 79 countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, as well as strategic partners, highlighting the importance of solidarity among nations in the face of multiple global challenges. During a high level dialogue with strategic partners at the 10th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Organisation of African, Caribbean...

By Pita Ligaiula in Luanda, Angola The head of the member Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) Georges Rebelo Chikoti has called on the European Union (EU) to sign the post-Cotonou deal with member states as the credibility of cooperation now hangs in the balance. Chikoti made the plea after the 79-member OACPS concluded its 10th Head of...

By Pita Ligaiula in Luanda, Angola Samoa’s hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in 2024 is an opportunity for the island nation to showcase to the world the effect of climate change facing the Pacific. CHOGM will bring together delegations from 56 nations from across Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, and the Pacific. In an interview with PACNEWS in Luanda,...

By Pita Ligaiula in Luanda, Angola Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland has offered her best wishes to the people of Fiji as they go to the polls on Wednesday this week to elect the new government. 693, 915 Fijians are registered to cast their vote in the one-day vote. In an interview with PACNEWS in Angola’s capital Luanda, after the 10th Summit...