Action planned about rolls

Press, 10 May 1980, Page 6

Action planned about rolls

PA, Wellington The Labour Party plans urgent action on' the electoral rolls in Onehunga and Northern Maori; • The Leader of the Opposition (Mr Rbwling) . said yesterday that Labour would take the earliest opportunity when Parliament sits on May 15 to introduce legislation which will allow' enrolments to reopen and continue until the eve of. the by-elections on June 7. Mr Rowling said the action was necessary because of the problems that had “surfaced” with .the rolls and the short time that had been allowed for enrolment. The authority for Labour’s planned changes involves amending a section of the Electoral Act. Mr Rowling said that ■ Labour had been forced, to take the step as a lastrditch

effort to get the Government to face its responsibilities in electoral matters. “It is now 18 months since the shambles of the 1978 General Election. We have been repeatedly assured that things had been corrected,” he said. “Instead, we find the same obstruction, administrative incompetence, and blatant disregard for people’s rights as we found in 1978.” Mr Rowling said the legislation to be presented in Parliament would represent a direct challenge to the responsibility of the Government in electoral matters. “If it attempts to block the Labour move, New Zealand can see quite clearly that it has no interest in a clean and valid election, and that the ballots on June 7 will be just as distorted as the ballot in November, 1978,” Mr Rowling said.