Bainimarama could win Fiji's first election since 2006

There were long lines outside many Fijian voting booths today. Photo / Lincoln Tan

Voreqe Frank Bainimarama, the man who seized power to become prime minister of Fiji in a 2006 military coup, could be retaining his position.

Today's election was the country's first in eight years, and the first since the coup.

Seven political parties and 248 candidates, including independents, contested in the polls.

Early counting put Mr Bainimarama and his Fiji First Party in the lead with 48.3 per cent of tallied votes.

Supervisor of elections Mohammed Saneem said voter turnout was high, with most centres reporting between 77 and 100 per cent voting.

About 520,000 people cast their votes at 1460 polling stations across Fiji, according to the Fijian Elections Office.

Mr Saneem said the election had been generally free of violence.

"We haven't received any reports of any altercation at any of our polling stations," said Mr Saneem.

"As such we can say from that...there was no violence."

The election is being observed by a group of international observers on the ground, including a team from New Zealand.

Former deputy prime minister Wyatt Creech is leading a five person New Zealand team with includes current and former Members of Parliament.

Mr Creech, who had been assigned a polling station away from the capital Suva, said the group would be meeting for a debrief today and a report will be released this afternoon.

"We have not found anything untoward...but until we meet, it would not be possible to say if the election was free and fair," Mr Creech said before he left.

Mr Creech believed a successful Fiji elections would result in a rekindling of ties with New Zealand.

A baffling ballot paper with no names or logos but just a grid of 248 numbers, a two-and-a-half day media ban and the government using funds to campaign for Fiji First party were among some of the complaints.

Electoral candidate Roshika Deo said she was keen to end a dictatorship which she had put Fiji in the "dark ages" in economic progress and human rights.

"I have no respect for him [Bainimarama] at all," said Miss Deo, 33.

"The manner in which he speaks, how he disregards all the contribution that young people have made to this country."

Miss Deo, a Fijian of Indian descent, said more than half her extended family members had left Fiji - many of them for New Zealand - since the coup.

Rivalry between indigenous Fijian nationalists and ethnic Indians, who are mainly descendants of workers brought to the South Pacific island nation, is at the root of much of the political conflict.

In 2000, animosity came to a head when indigenous Fijians overthrew the first Indo-Fijian prime minister.

Since 1987, the country has had four coups, with the last one eight years ago.

Sodelpa, a party linked to the previous government, has a strong support base among the native iTaukei Fijians, was on 42.1 per cent.

Luke Waqabaca, 36, a voter from the Muarivatu Settlement, said he voted Sodelpa because Fiji needed to be reclaimed.

"Fiji belongs to us, and we need a government who stands for that," Mr Waqabaca said.

Mr Bainimarama's Fiji First Party, on the other hand, was getting most of its support from Indo-Fijians and other ethnic communities for it's "everyone is equal" pitch.

Delivery man, Jai Prasad, from Central Suva, said he would leave the country if Fiji First did not retain power.

"The coup was a necessary evil, but life has been better for most of us than before 2006."