Govt may require postal ballots

Press, 31 May 1977, Page 20

Govt may require postal ballots

The Government may require future local body amalgamation polls to be conducted by postal ballot, and only after a full purge of the electoral roll. These points are being considered for inclusion in the second stage of the Local Government Amendment Bill, which the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr Highet) hopes will be introduced early in this Parliamentary session. This follows controversy over the merger of Taieri and Waikouaiti counties in

Otago, which has just been approved in a poll, conducted only by booth vote. The law requires 50 per cent of the number of the roll to vote “no,” before a merger is halted. This, in effect, gives people listed in the roll, who do not vote, a “Yes” vote. Waikouaiti merger opponents were angry that a postal vote was not held, and in a survey of only two ridings in the county found the names of 51 people on the roll who were either dead or had moved away. It is understood that Mr Highet expected most local bodies to use the postal method for merger polls. Meanwhile the Waikouaiti residents group is investigating the possibility of legal action to overturn the results of last Saturday’s poll. A spokesman, Mr A. J. Wright, said today that the poll had been fraught with irregularities: “Based on the results, it is obvious that the Waikouaiti

ratepayers have stated very clearly that they are against the amalgamation. If the council decides to go ahead with amalgamation we will certainly be fighting it with every possible means at our disposal” he said. Final voting figures announced yesterday were 1380 against amalgamation and 250 in favour. In all, 187 of the special votes, which decided the poll, were ineligible. There were 488 special votes allowed against the amalgamation, and 53 in favour of it Residents failed to stop the merger by 123 votes.