Wright’s wrong again—Labour

Press, 20 December 1978, Page 1

Wright’s wrong again—Labour

PA Wellington Figures given by the Electoral Officer on Monday showing that the National Party had the highest total of votes could be wrong, said the Chief Electoral Officer (Mr J. L. Wright) last evening. He told N.Z.P.A. that his office had added the figures supplied by individual returning officers. The figures had been telegraphed to the Chief Electoral Office and had not been checked. Mr Wright said. There could be errors, he said. “That is always possible.”

He said he had not seen a statement made by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Rowiing) yesterday, in which it was said that Electoral Office figures for the distribution of the total votes cast in the General Election were wrong. Mr Rowling said that Labour had the largest vote total of 691,814, compared with National’s 681,177.

The Electoral Office figures showed National ahead with 694,160 votes,

compared with Labour’s 677,296. Mr Rowling said the “mistakes” had been caused by transposing figures in results from Bi ’’enhead and Western Maori, and by an incorrect total being added in the Te Atatu electorate.

In a reference to the Chief Electoral Officer, Mr Rowling commented: “Wright’s wrong again.” Mr Wright would not comment on when the disputed figures would be checked, but he said he did not expect to issue an overall breakdown of votes cast.

The over-all figure attributed to the Chief Electoral Office had been arrived at by adding electorate totals supplied to him, he said. But his office had not issued national totals for the parties. Mr Rowling said the correct figures were: Labour, 691,814 votes (40.176 per cent); National, 681,177 (39.558 per cent); Social Credit, 274,881 (15.964 per cent); Values, 41,226 (2.395 per cent); others 22,131 (1.286 per cent); informal,

10,737 (0.624 per cent); total, 721,966. The correction of the errors increased the Labour vote 14,516 and reduced National’s 12,983, Mr Rowling said. Commenting on the inquiry into the electoral law announced by the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon), Mr Rowling said this must look at the conduct of the Electoral Office itself. Voters should not be “put through the hassles” they had been through over the last year, he said. Mr Muldoon said yesterday that he would consult Mr Rowling on the membership and terms of reference of the committee of inquiry, which he thought should be headed by a magistrate and have a computer expert and retired senior public servant as members.

Mr Rowling said it would be a good idea to have persons such as the former Prime Minister, Sir John Marshall, and the former Leader of the Labour Party, Sir Arnold Nordmeyer, on the committee.