They've started to ramp up their complaints about so-called voter suppression. Now, to be fair, this is not a new complaint. It's been going on all campaign. It goes back more than a year. But it really went up a level with Ayesha Verrall complaining that the first day of voting would fall on a public holiday and that "it's all adding up".
Then, a former Labour Party staffer who worked in the Beehive and now writes a column for the Sunday Star-Times published one with the headline: "The disturbing sense this year's election might be illegitimate", citing a range of concerns, including the overhang strategy.
And then Trevor Mallard, who we know is tailing Chippy this election to make sure he sits up straight and, you know, gives Mike Hosking a bit of aggro, tried to vote at the same place in Wainuiomata where he voted for the past 19 years. When it wasn't open, he told the media:
"It is looking like the voter suppression you expect from Trump, or in India or Hungary, not here in Aotearoa."
Now, I think it's fair enough for the Labour Party to complain about National's decision to cut off early enrolment because that was always going to reduce the vote on the left. Young people, who tend to vote left, also tend to leave things to the last minute and were probably going to get caught out by it.
And the decision hasn't actually stood up to scrutiny.
But it is one thing to complain about that, and it is quite another to cobble together all these other complaints about a public holiday and an overhang strategy that National itself is trying to stop. That looks a lot like making excuses in advance for why they're going to lose the 2026 election.
Which is a little dangerous if it risks undermining public confidence in the system at a time when confidence in institutions is already waning.
Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and radio broadcaster who hosts Newstalk ZB's weekday Drive-Time Show – where this article was sourced.
6 comments:
Labour would prefer a voting system where the party (being Labour) will cast the votes on behalf of all unregistered voters. That’s the sum total of the nanny state mindset … oops, communism!
Most of those that would enrol at the last minute are already breaking the law. Considering the tacit support given to gangs, it is no wonder the left wants to treat them as poor victims that just need a hug.
Heather, the IQ test that potential voters have to undertake to get to submit their ballot papers isn't nearly stringent enough. It should be just like school or university. We should all have to pass exams to qualify to vote.
Limit voting to citizens living in NZ, not incarcerated or subject to post-trial court restrictions, have mental capacity, and preferably over the age of 21 having worked and paid tax on earnings.
Some countries used to run literacy tests which one had to pass to be allowed to vote. A notable example is Brazil which scrapped the test only in 1985.
There was a detectable shift to the left in elections after 1985. This was translated by legislators (more of whom were now left-wing) into higher levels of welfare expenditure.
I reckon we should limit voting to present - citizen - TAXPAYERS....So if your job is directly paid for or funded by taxpayers or ratepayers then you don't get a vote.
After all, the whole point of government is to extract money from taxpayers and redistribute the tax take across all residents to ensure the funding of what taxpayers consider important.
This would reduce the voting public to the following:
Company owners and their employees, who are citizens, and presently live in NZ - or citizens and permanent residents who claim NZ as their residence for taxation purposes.
(If you live overseas no vote for you.)
No public servants (incl state school teachers/ police etc), no retireees and no dole bludgers or other beneficiaries.
The people who generate the money that creates the tax that funds everyone and everything else should be the only people entitled to vote.
(Just because your govt funded salary or benefit gets taxed doesn't make you a taxpayer - it just makes one question why there's all the extra admin involved.)
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