Source : Perth Now news
It’s election day in New Zealand, but there’s not a democracy sausage in sight.
Aside from voters popping in and out, the polling places are bare: there’s no campaigners, no how-to-vote cards and roadside signage from the campaign is all down.
That’s by law, as a blackout period descends on the election campaign from midnight, allowing Kiwis the chance to vote without interference or annoyance.
The electoral rules are so strict, candidates aren’t allowed to wear party-branded t-shirts on election day or wear a rosette.
The same laws apply to local media, which mean Saturday’s newspapers are free from political content – other than the locations of polling places – and broadcasters and online outlets cannot publish new stories.
Depending on how you see it, it’s an anachronism or blessed relief.
“People definitely like it when the billboards come down,” Victoria University of Wellington political scientist Lara Greaves told AAP.
The electoral commission’s advice is that from midnight until 7pm on election day, when polls close, no Kiwis are allowed to “post or share any content that’s likely to – or is intended to – influence someone’s candidate vote or party vote”.
That rule is nigh on unenforceable given the rise of social media, where anonymous posts on any number of networks might be breaking the law.
In another oddity, this article can be posted on Australian websites, but not New Zealand ones, which are equally accessible to Kiwis.
Given the rules, local media get creative in their attempts to keep election day interesting.
Kiwi outlet The Spinoff liveblogs election day by publishing pictures of dogs outside polling places.
For campaigners, the blackout means volunteers scramble late into the night to take down signage ahead of midnight.
More voters will cast ballots before the cut-off: by Thursday, more than 1.6 million Kiwis had voted already.
An independent electoral review, which included Dr Greaves, recommended adopting the same set of campaigning rules through the entire voting period, stating the rules were “too strict” and “no longer fit for purpose”.
Speaking in Morrinsville on election eve, Mr Luxon agreed.
“We were set up in a world where we did 100 per cent of our voting on election day and there were some really good campaign laws around that,” he said.
“(Reform) is not an unreasonable thing to look at down the road.”
While Mr Luxon’s government opted against legislating change during its first term, Greens co-leader Chloe Swarbrick said she’d support reform.
“Some of it feels pretty arcane. And it’s due for an evolution,” she said.
In Auckland during the last week of the campaign, Labour leader Chris Hipkins said there was a good reason to retain the election day blackout: fatigue.
After a long slog campaigning for office, candidates and volunteers get a legally enforceable break on election day.
That’s particularly important as for parties attempting to form government, the tough work of coalition negotiations can begin the Sunday after election day.
“It’s nice that those who want to do the traditional thing of going and voting on election day have the opportunity to do that in peace,” Mr Hipkins said.
“Our campaign is on election day focused on turning out, so we offer people rides to the polling booth.
“But there isn’t campaigning on election day and I think that’s a nice part of the Kiwi tradition. I’d be sad to see that go.”
Dr Greaves said a revisit of the laws – whether they came with sausage and school bake sales – was warranted.
“We have these things that we do, or these things that are part of the culture that are really hard to shift and change,” she said.
“There’s a whole suite of electoral laws that are like that, that we really need to evaluate and consider.”
