VOTING FIGURES

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31702, 11 June 1968, Page 16

VOTING FIGURES

‘Doubts On Democracy’ If the test of public interest in local government was voting figures or the extent to which the public were involved in local government. New Zealand did not show up very well, said the Secretary of Internal Affairs (Mr P. J. O’Dea), speaking yesterday to the joint conference of county clerks and engineers. At the local body elections in 1965, the national voting percentage was 44.4, he said, and the county figure was 40 per cent. Much of the same problem was faced in England and Wales, where the latest figure was 40 per cent. Yet local body elections in Sweden produced an 80 per cent vote, with 70 per cent in Germany, between 54 per cent and 60 per cent in Ireland, and more than 90 per cent for the New Zealand general election. “This must raise doubts as to whether democracy is working here as it should be,” said Mr O’Dea. He suggested that local bodies should take more interest in the experimental voting procedure provided for in the Local Elections and Polls Act, the main purpose of which were to get a wider expression of voter opinion. To the limited extent that postal voting was used at the 1965 elections, voting percentages had been as high as 97 per cent, with 70 to 90 per cent common, he said. Even where there were no riding elections, and an election only for special purposes, votes were as high as 81 per cent. Mr O’Dea said that 27 counties would use postal voting at the elections on October 12.