M.P. angry about roll

Press, 4 March 1978, Page 2

M.P. angry about roll

PA Wanganui The Social Credit leader,Mr B. C. Beetham, has con-1 1 idemned the large number of : special votes disallowed in ! the Rangitikei by-election as 1 a “sad commentary” on the 1 ■ system of maintaining electoral rolls. He was commenting on! the official declaration of* the by-election result —! showing that he has a! majority of 1335. About 840 of the 1787! special votes cast were dis-; allowed. Of these, 751 spe-i cial votes were disallowed'! because people were not on: the electoral roll. Of the 946 special votes i 1 allowed. Mr Beetham won I 426. Mr J. Bull (National)! 408, Mr J. J. Stewart! (Labour) 97, Dr J. D. Hock-! ing (Values) 14, and Mr M.l (

J. Leniston (Independent) 1. I Mr Beetham’s vote wentl I up 929 to 6804, compared; 'with the 1975 General Elec-j :tion. National dropped 2162: ; to 5469, and Labour 649 to | 1614. Altogether, 14,164 valid i I votes were cast, compared' with 16,141 in 1975. Mr Beetham said there! were 360 names entered! twice on the roll, and six! three times. It was an “un-i fortunate and sad corn-!! mentary” on the system off maintaining electoral rolls if

that so many special votes were disallowed, and that ■ the Rangitikei roll was “a | mess.” The high number of votes disallowed also reflected the speed with which the byelection had been called, the subsequent early roll closing, and confusion among imany people about whether I they were eligible to vote. Mr Beetham said the conI firmed big swing away from ! National, meant that it had j ‘better start looking for reasons other than simply the: iprotest vote to explain away! f the situation.” He said he expected to: i win in November with a reiduced majority, but the I usual continuing deteriora-. ition in the economy and: [farm incomes would prevent] I the main parties “squeezingl (out” Socred.