Broadcasters’ return of election programmes

 

After each election, every broadcaster must give the Electoral Commission a complete and accurate statement of election advertising broadcast by that broadcaster during the three months before polling day.  The report must be given to the Electoral Commission no later than 10 working days after the end of the month in which an election is held, in this case Friday, 14 October 2005.  The reports may, among other uses, be used for reconciliations with party broadcasting invoices received for payment and with election expense returns.

The Electoral Commission has received a total of 67 returns from broadcasters.  It is hard to ascertain the number which has not provided a return as there is no definitive list of broadcasters as defined in the Broadcasting Act.

The definition of broadcaster in the Broadcasting Act means that each radio station manager is a broadcaster even though the reality of radio stations is that many are part of a network and so the station manager has little control over advertising or programmes. For instance for Classic Hits an advertisement may be booked by local sales staff just for that location (eg Classic Hits Wellington or Classic Hits Auckland) or the booking may be accepted by the Classic Hits Network or via The Radio Bureau, in either case to play on a range or all of the stations within the Classic Hits Network.  The Electoral Commission does accept returns from networks .

Of the received returns only 22 were received by the due date with most a month late.

Party return of election expenses

 

After a general election the secretary of every registered party must provide a return to the Electoral Commission of party election expenses incurred in the three months immediately before polling day.  The return must be on a form provided by the commission, and be accompanied by an auditor's report.  The obligation applies whether or not the party contested the party vote or any electorate seat.  If the party had no election expenses the secretary must make a nil return and get an auditor's report.

The deadline to provide the return and auditor's report is 50 working days after the day the chief electoral officer declares the election of list MPs.  In this case the deadline was Monday, 19 December 2005.

22 parties are registered and therefore are obliged to provide a return of party election expenses.  13 were received by the due date, a further 7 by 16 February and two have still not been received.  Of the 20 received so far only 5 were complete.  The others had to be returned for clarification or correction.  A common mistake was in calculating the spending limit for that party.

Summary

 

The Electoral Commission can refer parties or broadcaster that do not comply to the police but has no other means of enforcing accurate compliance by the due date.

Compliance with the legal requirement for returns has not been timely or accurate. Checking and chasing accurate returns is time consuming.

Dr Helena Catt
Chief Executive
Electoral Commission
9 February 2006