Australians living in Rarotonga voted in federal elections for the first time in person.

A voting station was set up by the Australian High Commission on Tuesday at Crown Beach Resort.

Australia holds its federal election on May 21.

Australian High Commissioner Dr Christopher Watkins said for one day, Australians were able to vote at a polling station in Rarotonga.

Australians previously needed to cast postal votes to participate in elections because the Cook Islands Australian High Commission which is facilitating the voting was only was established in March 2020.

Watkins said the postal votes were not easy.

“So I expect a lot of people ended up actually not voting, so it’s really nice to be able to enfranchise that community again,” he said.

By 12 noon on Tuesday, about 20 people had already cast a vote, Watkins said.

However, he was expecting a bit of a rush around lunchtime because the “democracy sausages” were on offer.

“I’m already happy to have had that many people, so if we get two to three times that, it would be a wonderful success,” he said.

“We have had some lovely people turn up that we didn’t know and they’re from all over, people from north of Broome in Western Australia, we’ve had people from Hobart and down the south, all over Australia, who either live here or are visiting family here.”

Watkins said the voting station was a few weeks in the planning and a lot of training was needed.

Tiriamate Ruatapu, a Cook Islander living in Sydney said he was grateful for the voting centre, and said it made it easier to vote.