Boorman loses seat to Creech

Press, 13 July 1988, Page 1

Boorman loses seat to Creech

By

PETER LUKE,

political reporter

Mr Reg Boorman’s boast that he was the only politician to carry his majority about with him turned sour yesterday. He became instead the only Labour politician to lose his seat in last August’s General Election.

His one-vote win in the Wairarapa seat was yesterday turned by the High Court into a 34-vote win for Mr Wyatt Creech, the National candidate. To add insult to injury the Court also ruled that Mr Boorman had committed a corrupt election practice by indirectly but knowingly paying election expenses over the limit of $5OOO, and abetting such payments. Yesterday’s decision gave a definitive answer to the uncertainty which has persisted since election night, when Mr Creech seemed to have won by 65 votes. But two weeks later the official count gave Mr Boorman victory by seven votes, and a subsequent judicial recount confirmed this result, but by only a single vote.

Mr Boorman made the best of this slender result, boasting that he carried his majority with him when he left Wairarapa. Ironically, one consequence of the corrupt practice finding is that his own vote has been disallowed.

In political terms, National now has 40 members, and the Government's majority is now 17. In personal and financial terms, Mr Creech — deemed to have been elected last August — will get 11 months back pay. Mr Boorman will leave the House with his superannuation contributions, believed to be between $15,000 and $20,000. The Opposition received an obvious fillip from the result, but so too have two members — themselves electoral petition veterans — who took up Mr Creech’s cause where his party would not.

They are the members for Tauranga, Mr Winston Peters, and for Waikaremoana, Mr Roger McClay. But beneath the triumph and despair, yesterday’s decision raised deep questions regarding electoral law and practices. In effect, the three High Court judges — headed by the Chief Justice, Sir Ronald Davison — ruled on two issues: the votes and the spending. Although the Court decided that a corrupt practice had occurred, the election was not deemed void because the vote analysis favoured Mr Creech.

The Court made a large number of findings on both issues some of which will require amendments to the law.

One key issue on vote counting was how the residential qualification should be interpreted. This had special relevance in Wairarapa with its tertiary students and Wellington commuters.

The Court decided that residence should be based on where voters spent the most time. The decision also clarified what precisely should be regarded as legitimate campaign expenses. The Minister of Justice, Mr Palmer, would not comment yesterday on the issues raised in the 115-page decision. But the ousted member, Mr. Boorman, said that he genuinely believed that he had not overspent. He also said that Mr Creech would have been in the same position, given the thousands of letters mailed out by other National members. The findings on residence had disenfranchised a number of genuine Wairarapa residents, who had thought that because their homes were in the electorate, they could vote there, he said. “However, the Court has said that they must vote where they spend most of their time even though they do not live in that place.”

Editorial, page 18