Election outcome uncertainty intensified by ‘irregularities’

Press, 1 December 1978, Page 1

Election outcome uncertainty intensified by ‘irregularities’

By

CEDRIC MENTIPLAY

The General Election is not over yet. The man who sits behind the Prime Minister’s desk in the Prime Ministerial suite on the third floor of Parliament Buildings is not really the Prime Minister — nor can he act the part of one.

The man who arrived back at the Leader of the Opposition’s suite in the General Assembly library building yesterday is not yet confirmed as Leader of the Opposition. For him there will be a tantalising hint of higher things — until the final count brings confirmation or rejection.

Mr Muldoon and his National Government have a six-seat majority — but as the special and overseas votes pour in, so the likelihood increases that the final result will be something else again. The special votes have all been made, but they have until 7 p.m. on December 5 to reach the Electoral Office. The Chief Electoral Officer (Mr J. Wright) expects that some counting will be completed by Friday. December 8, and that there will be a complete result on Monday, December 11. The present situation is not unique. It must have existed to an even more closely-balanced degree in 1957, when Nash’s second Labour Government ousted Holyoake’s Nationals by a mere two-seat margin. But not even at that time was the Electoral Office under such constant and bitter challenge. There were few if any challenges. The losing party wasted no time in conceding. I can remember asking the then Mr K. J. Holyoake how long he believed the new Labour Government would last without challenge. The general belief was that, with no margin for sickness or other reasons for absence from Parliament, the new administration, with its working margin of one vote, could not hope to survive.

But Mr Holyoake regarded me mildly and answered: “Three * years. Why ’ not? , That’s what they,'were effected for.”

And three years it was. Today’s problem is that for various reasons the number of special votes is very high. This might not matter much in a normal election-count, but nonGovernment candidates have been hammering the fact that over the last three years there has been a tremendous outflow of New Zealanders of voting age.

Impinging on this are the visits of Mr Rowling to Australia, and of Dr Martyn Finlay to London. It has been a Labour theme that the drift, overseas was a direct consequence of conditions brought about by the Muld o o n-National Government.

This will be disproved or confirmed by December 8. Until then, however, we must remember that no fewer than 21 seats (16 National, 5 Labour) are

held by election-night majorities of 979 or less. We do not really know beyond doubt what our 1978-81 Government will be. Meanwhile, the Press Association reports Mr Muldoon as saying the National Party is following up “a wide range of apparent electoral irregularities” in Saturday’s General Election and is prepared to take legal action if necessary. Mr Muldoon attributed some of the “apparent electoral irregularities” to What he described as “an excess of enthusiasm by some Labour organisers.” And he added: “That’s the kindest way of putting it.” Mr Muldoon said many special votes would have to be disallowed because people are not entitled to vote in particular electorates and because electors on Maori rolls had voted in the general roll. Mr Muldoon said there were “a considerable number of apparent irregularities” in Kapiti, captured for Labour by Mrs Marga-

ret Shields with a ninevote majority over the sitting National member, Mr B. E. Brill. There were also some in Taupo and Hunua, both won by Labour. Asked if he was suggesting that the Labour Party had deliberately set out to encourage illegal plural voting, Mr Muldoon said he was making no such suggestion at this stage, and repeated his comment that there had been “an excess of enthusiasm” by the Labour Party. Asked if any problems had been caused by the state of the electoral rolls, he replied: “To some extent.” The deputy Chief Electoral Officer (Mr P. Horne) told the Press Association that only two allegations of serious voting irregularities were known to be under investigation. Mr Horne said that the two cases, one in New Plymouth and the other in the South Island, were the only allegations of dual or irregular voting to be referred to his office. But further investigations might be under way.

“We would not necessarily receive this information immediately from the returni ig officer in the electorate concerned. The allegations would be a matter for the returning officer, who is required to investigate. “We would receive reports only after these investigations, with recommendations on whether there should be prosecutions,” Mr Horne said. No recommendations had been made so far on the two cases which were known to be under scrutiny.