Electoral Commissioner Tuiafelolo John Stanley has confirmed that staff of the Office of the Electoral Commissioner (OEC) will be paid for the overtime hours they are working during the official ballot count.

The commissioner said OEC workers put in long hours this week to complete the constituency counts within the required timeframe. Workers are allowed 15-minute breaks between counts until each constituency is finished, he said.

On Tuesday night, when the official count for that session ended around 3 am, workers were sent home to rest before resuming again at 9 am on Wednesday.

“This is the nature of the elections because we have to complete the count in one week,” Tuiafelolo said.

At the Tuanaimato Multipurpose Gym, eight tables line the operations centre floor, three on the left side of the gym, while five are on the other side, each dedicated to the count of one constituency. Electoral workers, split into eight teams, rotate as the counts shift from one constituency to the next.

At each table, four to five OEC workers are stationed alongside three to five scrutineers. Police officers are also present, seated near or at the tables to provide oversight. Scrutineers not directly involved in a table’s work take their place on the sidelines or in the stands, where they watch the process unfold from above.

During the past two nights of counting, many people were seen resting in the stands, lying down as they waited to be called. Some are family members who came to support scrutineers, while others are members of the public taking advantage of the open access to the proceedings.

The counting process is expected to continue through to Thursday.