Face-to-face with the 2006 Māori Electoral Option

• Markets, marae, shopping malls, kapa haka festivals, educational institutions and hui - large and small - are being targeted by the Māori Electoral Option kanohi ki te kanohi teams which are raising awareness of the 2006 option.  Electoral Enrolment Centre contractors are on the ground talking face-to-face with groups and individuals in communities explaining what the option is, how to take part, while also making it easy for people to enrol.  More than 19,000 people from North Cape to Bluff have already been reached with presentations about the 2006 option.  The activity continues through until the end of the campaign in early August.  E-mail your local contact if you want to arrange or suggest a presentation or event presence.

Māori electoral participation research

• An annotated bibliography of academic work on Māori electoral participation has been published by the Electoral Commission which is also finalising contracts for four projects due to deliver reports by the end of the year.  The projects, which were proposed through a tender process, are designed to inform policy and intervention design, along with further research needs to help understand and improve electoral participation by Māori:
  • He Puna Marama Trust will conduct focus group interviews of Māori in Whangārei. The team will use the problem-based methodology from education research to investigate reasons why eligible Māori voters participate or not in elections. This methodology explores causal links between research participants and the way they talk about the issue and the related actions. 
  • Massey University School of Māori Studies will interview a sub-sample from Te Hoe Nuku roa study.  Drawing and building on this Māori-led longitudinal study of Māori households, the research will examine the background of those who vote and those who do not; and of those on the Māori and on the general electoral rolls.  Interviews will also explore attitudes towards voting and politics.
  • Research New Zealand will conduct a literature review and annotated bibliography of work related to Māori participation and to social marketing to Māori that has been created within the public sector and may have relevance to electoral participation. 
  • UMR Research Limited will undertake quantitative analysis of existing data on Māori electoral participation seeking to understand the profile of voters and non-voters.  Existing data to be used includes publicly available data and data collected by UMR.
• The commission intends organising a conference for December where the four projects and relevant research by others will be presented and discussed.

Falling participation – international insights

• The Power inquiry into the health of UK democracy reported in late February.  It concluded that, contrary to widespread opinion, the British public is not politically apathetic, in spite of falling voter turn-out and party membership.  However, the public does feel excluded from the policy process, and poorly served by party politics, with the electoral system perceived as unequal.
• The UK Electoral Commission published its third annual Audit of political engagement.  It found differences in levels of political knowledge, interest and activism between different social groups. The research points to an utterly disengaged minority, made up mainly of people from lower social economic groups who know very little about politics and care even less. But it suggests that creating more opportunities for direct participation, where citizens can directly influence political decisions through petitions, demonstrations and public inquiries, for example, will not bridge this gap.
• Why is Voter Turnout Not Declining in Denmark? (.pdf) is the question which this paper attempts to answer, concluding that the electoral system, highly competitive elections, and a continued renewal of the norm of civic duty have contributed to passing the habit of electoral turnout on to new generations.  As mentioned in the last edition of e-news, Denmark is unique in bucking the trend of declining youth participation.

Donations and expenses also vexing elsewhere

• New Zealand is not the only country considering issues relating to party election expenses and funding.
• Electoral Commission CEO Helena Catt participated in a recent Australian National University workshop held as part of the Australian Democratic Audit and titled ‘Political finance and government advertising’.  This conference considered the funding and donation disclosure regimes in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK :
  • Australian parties receive funding based on the number of first preference votes won at the election and there are no spending caps.  Electoral advertising in Australia is backgrounded (.pdf) by the Australian Electoral Commission.
  • In Canada candidates can be reimbursed for expenses up to 60% of the spending cap as demonstrated by the distribution for the recent election.
  • Parties in the UK do not receive any campaign funding and there are spending limits for candidates but not for the party.  The UK Electoral Commission considered issues of spending limits, caps on donations and the public funding of political parties in a December 2004 report, The funding of political parties.  The commission is currently reviewing the issue of loans to parties, including the disclosure of discounted interest value in donations returns.  Its report on campaign spending in the 2005 general election is also available.

Kiwis offer electoral assistance

• Chief Electoral Office staff helped Tokelau design and deliver its February referendum on independence.  Electoral information manager Anthony Pengelly went to Tokelau in November to deliver supplies and prepare instruction manuals while CEO Auckland Regional Manager, Alofa Glas, spent a week in Apia ahead of the mid-February ballot helping with training and supplies and then with the voting and counting processes.  Challenges including last minute substitution of heavy wooden ballot boxes for cardboard ones beginning to suffer in monsoonal rains, as well as straining a dinghy to capacity delivering the ballot box and its entourage of two issuing officers, two police officers, two UN observers, a photographer and Alofa to an outlying island.  “It was the most amazing experience,” says Alofa.  “We used the same voting process that is used in New Zealand and it was highly regarded by observers from the United Nations and the New Zealand Administrator of Tokelau.  “I felt honoured to represent the Chief Electoral Office, and personally proud to be a Pacific Islander representing New Zealand.”
• Chief Electoral Officer David Henry was invited by the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth to be part of an observer mission for Uganda ’s presidential and parliamentary elections held late February.  The mission, led by the former President of Botswana, reported that despite “some serious irregularities and significant shortcomings … the poll, count and results process provided for conditions which enabled the will of the Ugandan people to be expressed and the results of the elections reflected the wishes of those who were able to vote”.
• The Electoral Commission coordinated a five-day visit to New Zealand in March by MPs and electoral officials of Timor Leste examining aspects of electoral system design, parliamentary roles, party politics, and local government as the newly independent democracy introduces new electoral law to replace transitional measures.  The visit follows one by Helena Catt to Timor Leste in February where she presented to a wide range of MPs, officials and political activists on requested topics which helped focus the later study tour to New Zealand.  The programme was initiated and funded by IRI, an international democracy NGO.  Helena says the Timor Leste delegation was extremely grateful for the time and candid comment given by everyone they met in New Zealand.

Election ’05 sequels

• The Justice and Electoral Committee resumes its inquiry into the 2005 general election on 4 May, having already heard from 12 of 15 submitters.
• The 2005 general election enrolment, advance voting and EasyVote campaign won gold for the Electoral Enrolment Centre, Chief Electoral Office, and Y&R Advertising for best integrated campaign at the New Zealand Marketing Association direct marketing awards 2005.
• The Election ’05 area on the Elections New Zealand website now includes expense return data for parties and candidates, and Electoral Commission post-election management reports concerning public information and education, broadcasting allocation, party and broadcaster returns.

Chief Electoral Office changes

• Robert Peden was promoted to Chief Electoral Officer on 1 April, replacing David Henry who retired on 31 March.  As Manager, Electoral Events from April 2003, Robert assisted David with leading the office and putting in place improved systems and business processes which led to the success of the 2005 elections.  Robert was Manager, Electoral Policy in the Chief Electoral Office for the 2002 election.

Final call for entries – Wallace Awards

• Entries close on Friday, 5 May, for Wallace Awards for best dissertation or thesis, or portfolio submitted by a tertiary student on New Zealand electoral matters and for best academic paper, monograph or book published on New Zealand electoral matters submitted or published (as appropriate) between 1 October 2004 and 30 April 2005, inclusive.

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