Photo: Pacnews
Polls have now closed in the Fiji election and results are flowing in.
Frank Bainimarama of the FijiFirst party, and his main rival, Sitiveni Rabuka of the People's Alliance, have cast their votes at their local polling stations.
Questioned by media, they both said they were confident of victory.
Bainimarama became embroiled in a tense standoff with an Australian journalist.
On being asked if he would respect the outcome of the vote if it didn't go in his favour, he responded that he would.
He then asked the reporter where she came from and whether Australia had more intelligent reporters to send to Fiji.
Soon after election day, the Multinational Observer Group is set to release an interim statement outlining its initial observations.
The group said a final report would be completed as soon as practical after election day, which would include more detailed observations, an assessment of the electoral processes observed, and any recommendations as appropriate.
See how the day unfolded here:
It is the country's third democratic elections under the new 2013 Constitution imposed by Frank Bainimarama after he overthrew a democratically elected government in a military coup in 2006.
Bainimarama has been in power for the past 16 years, after taking control in 2006 and almost eight and a half years later in 2014 led his newly formed political party, FijiFirst, to win decisively at the ballot to become a democratically elected prime minister.
He won the elections for a second time in 2018 but only managed to accumulate just over 50 percent of the total votes to lead a majority government.
The 2022 general election appears to be Bainimarama's litmus test, as he attempts to consolidate his power as the longest serving Fiji PM, while going up against his arch-rival and another former military strongman and coup maker Sitiveni Rabuka.
Long queues were sighted at various polling venues before voting began at 7.30am local time (8.30am NZDT).
