OPINION
The Electoral Commission is responsible for yet another no-government government, and it is a further insult to the voting public that we continue to have the losing PM as the actual, if so-called caretaking, PM. As Capitalist said well on the BFD, “What Mr Christopher Luxon should do is head to Government House and be sworn in as the ‘caretaker’ Prime Minister.”
What is stopping Mr PM-in-waiting Luxon simply staking his rightful claim and putting an end to the ridiculous situation we are placed in? And still, we wait.
The election 2023 is yet another fiasco, at the heart of which is the Electoral Commission. What does this commission do exactly? The Electoral Commission website states:
We run every part of parliamentary elections (general elections, by-elections and referendums). Some of our main responsibilities are [emphasis added, but what else do they do that they are not telling us?]:
- registering political parties and their logos
- guiding people to comply with electoral law
- helping the public to understand how to enrol and vote
- allocating funding to parties for election broadcasting
- running voting places
- counting and processing votes
- publishing timely and accurate election results.
Point 2: they guide people to comply with electoral law. Perfect. Does that mean they guide people to vote only once? In the inexplicable absence of the requirement for identification to enrol, that guidance may be a nice-to-have outcome but not necessarily the outcome that is achieved. Why is it necessary to provide ID to buy wine at the supermarket but you can both enrol and vote without any? Just how easy it is to vote multiple times?
Should it be compulsory to have an ID card and/or other form of ID to vote? Even on the EasyVote card issue the Electoral Commission has fallen short as many are reporting they didn’t receive their packs in time.
The Electoral Commission sent out more than 3.4 million personalised enrolment packs to voters to check they are correctly enrolled. However, a production issue caused delays to packs in the Epsom, Mt Albert and Papakura electorates. The delivery of packs to voters in those three electorates started on 6 October and was expected to be completed by 11 or 12 October.
The Electoral Commission reminded people that they can vote with or without their EasyVote card, which is included in the pack […]
ElectionsNZ
What exactly is the point of the EasyVote card when it is easy enough to vote in its absence? Just another expensive piece of paper?
Point 6, counting and processing votes, but… as it has now been revealed, votes have been incorrectly assigned in 15 separate voting places. This entire election seems to have been run by incompetents.
Human errors, data entry errors, transcription errors – these are errors that can skew results, regardless of what Chief Electoral Officer Karl Le Quesne says. How many other errors are there that will never come to light?
And point 7: the publication of timely and accurate election results? Do they understand the meaning of that point? It seems not. We are still waiting for votes to be recounted, for demonstrable accuracy and for a new government. Small children can count faster than this lot at the Electoral Commission.
Surely, when a seat is ‘won’ on the basis of, say, only four votes and a recount is both inevitable and sensible, why is there not an automatic trigger at a number, like 200, that would mean that a recount is set in place and counting can be immediately commenced. Can the law not be updated to allow improvements to streamline what seems to be an inherently error-ridden system?
The time taken to recount votes represents the inevitability of the need to invite NZ First, in some capacity, if only as an insurance scheme that Christopher Luxon should have seen coming pre-election. A time in which David Seymour continues to play silly games.
A time in which Winston Peters continues to hold the whip. Again. A fact that pleases me and does not surprise me. The mood for change was tempered with a dislike for the National Party leader, our incoming PM, and for the direction of the National Party itself. It is no longer a significantly right-wing party and has strayed far from its founding principles. That is why right-leaning people voted for Winston Peters. That is why he is once again in parliament. And government? We wait. And wait.
Can we trust the results? Can we trust the Electoral Commission?
Let’s leave the last word to Mike Hosking: mikes-minute-the-electoral-commission-couldn-t-have-made-a-bigger-hash-of-this/