Fiji's national flag designing competition sees extensive participation

As the May 1 deadline arrived, Fiji's national flag designing competition has received a total of 1,430 individual entries, the government announced Friday, preparing to sift through the entries for the Pacific island country's new flag and bid farewell to its colonial past.

A surge of late entries saw the total number lodged with the Department of Information climb from more than 580 late Thursday to 1,430 when the deadline arrived at 4 p.m. Friday, according to the department, which is responsible for receiving the entries.

"All day today (Friday), a constant stream of individual members of the public arrived at the department's offices in New Government Buildings to lodge their entries and a large number were also received by email," the department said.

Iliesa Delana, chairman of the National Flag Committee and assistant minister for sports described the extent of the last- minute response as "incredible".

"We were hoping for a last-minute surge but nothing like this. The enthusiasm of ordinary Fijians has been fantastic. It has clearly captured the imagination of a great many citizens and demonstrated solid public support for the flag change", Delana said after going through some of the entries, adding that the people "have their own ideas about what symbols genuinely express the Fijian spirit".

As the entry lodging deadline expired, the competition, launched early March, entered into the next phase.

The remaining members of the National Flag Committee will now be chosen and begin the task of sifting through the entries, said Delana.

"I'm very excited to lead the search for the final design and am confident that these designs have given us a very good base to start from. As Prime Minister (Voreqe Bainimarama) has indicated, it may not just be one entry that is declared the winner. My committee will be able to draw on the full range of ideas and the final flag might be a combination of a number of entries," he said, thanking every Fijian that entered the competition.

Fiji was colonized by Britain in 1874 and gained independence on Oct. 10, 1970.

According to the government's plan, the country is expected to hoist the new national flag for the first time on Oct. 10, 2015, the 45th independence anniversary.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Bainimarama expressed the motive behind the change.

"The Union Flag belongs to the British, not to us. The shield on our flag has the British Lion and the Cross of St. George -- a British patron saint. What does this have to do with us? They are the symbols of the colonizer -- Britain -- a country with whom we are friends and will continue to be so. But they are not symbols that are relevant to any Fijian in the 21st century," he said. " And they should go. Honored symbols of our past, but not of our future." Endi