Polls open in Fiji's first election since 2006 coup

Suva (Fiji) (AFP) - Polling booths opened Wednesday in Fiji's first election since a 2006 military coup, with police reporting no early problems and a festive atmosphere prevailing in the South Pacific nation's capital.

Long queues formed before doors opened at 7.30am (1930 Tuesday GMT) at the Vatuwaqa Public School just outside the city centre, where military strongman Voreqe Bainimarama is expected to cast his ballot later in the day.

Many people were dressed in their Sunday best for the occasion, which local man Irivi Draundalo said represented a return to democracy that should usher in a new era of stability.

"I'm optimistic," he told AFP as he waited with hundreds of other voters outside the school. "After eight years, I'm looking forward to it (voting). There's been too many coups. Fiji needs a new government with real democracy."

The vote is seen as pivotal to ending the country's "coup culture", which saw four governments toppled between 1987 and 2006, largely due to tensions between indigenous Fijians and ethnic Indians.

While the army has been put on standby to prevent any violence, there was no evidence of trouble in Suva, where both races queued side-by-side.

"It's all going smoothly," Fiji's South African-born police commissioner Bernadus Groenewald told AFP during a brief visit to the Vatuwaqa school, where he was relaxed enough to joke with locals and shared his tips for braai-style barbeques.

Waisea Tuicicia gave a thumbs up after voting and proudly showed off the indelible ink on his index finger.

"That felt good," he told AFP with a grin.

Some 590,000 registered voters in the population of 900,000 will have the chance to select from almost 250 candidates standing for election to a new 50-seat parliament set up under a constitution adopted in 2013.