Electoral Commission decisions on EFA complaints
The Electoral Commission has made four decisions on complaints before it. They are:
- A determination that some NZ First banners in Tauranga were illegal election advertisements as they had no promoter authorisation statement. In a fit or arrogance, NZ First has not even deemed it worth responding to the Commission, so they have been referred to the Police for prosecution. Winston is ignoring the law he voted for, and believes he is above even responding to questions from the electoral authorities.
- A determination that some Green Party posters displayed in Auckland were unauthorised election advertisements but that they were not done by the Green Party itself (and had been modified without permission) so no offence by the Green Party. This does raise the issue of whether any effort will go into identifying who did display the posters because they almost certainly have broken the law.
- A determination that National’s “join the conversation” flyer is not an election advertisement as it main purpose is to communicate policy and solicit feedback for policy formulation.
- A determination that the Green Party broke the law by listing their financial agent’s work instead of residential address, but not referring to the Police as it is inconsequential.
All four decisions seem pretty sensible to me. The Green offence was relatively inconsequential (so I agree not to refere to Police) but the excuse that the Electoral Commission had not stated which address to use is pretty weak. The EFA could not be clearer that residential addresses are needed and the Greens voted for it.
We have yet to hear what will happen with the late donation returns for NZ First and ACT. NZ First has now twice shown a totally cavalier attitude towards the electoral agencies, as if complying with the law is for lesser mortals.