Rodney faces prosecution for his yellow jacket

The Electoral Commission has found four items were illegal election advertisements, and has referred three of them to the Police for possible prosecution. The one that will get all the news is that Rodney Hide’s yellow jacket has been referred.

ACT told the Electoral Commission that Rodney rectified any problems by affixing an authorisation inside the jacket that can be shown to anyone who asks to see it, but this wasn’t deemed sufficient. So Rodney and his jacket may end up in the dock. That’s a shame as no doubt he’ll start weariing it again!

It does show of course how stupid the law is.

The Greens had some unauthorised fence signs in Palmerston North, but ruled the breach inconsequential.

National MP Nicky Wagner has been referred to the Police. It seems she distributed printouts of some powerpoint slides at a meeting and the final slide had tick Wagner and tick National. That made it an election advertisement. I think this is the first National breach of the law.

Finally a flyer for Roger Douglas put together by his local campaign team was not authorised by the ACT Party Secretary, so was also a breach of the EFA and has been referred to the Police.

I wonder if the law will be repealed before any prosecutions occur?