Voting closes in Fiji's first election since 2006

Voting took place today. Photo / Lincoln Tan

Candidate Roshika Deo is keen to end a dictatorship which she says has put Fiji in the "dark ages" in economic progress and human rights.

Voting has closed in Fiji's first election since a military coup 2006, and a three-day media blackout has just been lifted.

Votes are being counted and preliminary results are expected to be known by 11pm tonight.

Miss Deo, a Fijian of Indian descent, is one of just two independent candidates who stood in the election.

Voreque Frank Bainimarama seized power to become prime minister in the coup.

"I have no respect for him 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 said more than half her extended family members had left Fiji - many of them for New Zealand - since the coup.

A feminist and a strong human rights advocate, Miss Deo hopes to be an MP to give Fijians - especially the minority and other marginalised groups - a sense that this is "their home".

"It was very personal why I came into politics, it's my own quest for justice, I was very angry and frustrated," Miss Deo said.

"I was angry that a lot of Indo-Fijians were not claiming ownership of our country...especially the younger generation."

Miss Deo said based on an expected 80 per cent voter turnout, she would need 27,500 votes to get into Parliament.

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.

Since1987, the country has had five 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.

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.

"We are iTaukei you know, and Sodelpa understands us and does not say that everyone is the same."

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.

Fong Lee Hong Kong Restaurant owner Yao Lin, an immigrant from China, voted for Fiji First because he did not believe "any race is superior" in Fiji.

"Like what Fiji First says, we are all the same," he said.

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," Mr Prasad said.

"If Bainimarama does not retain power, I will move...I don't know maybe to Australia or New Zealand."

Media, international observers and election agents have started to gather at the FMF Gymnasium at Laucala Bay where the count is being screened.