Boorman struck off roll

Press, 24 August 1988, Page 2

Boorman struck off roll

PA Masterton The former member of Parliament for Wairarapa, Mr Reg Boorman, has had his name struck off the Wairarapa master electoral roll after a legal opinion by the Electoral Roll Control Centre, Wellington. It means Mr Boorman cannot vote in any Parliamentary election for three years, and, as the local body rolls are prepared from the Parliamentary rolls, he seems likely to be banned from voting in any local body election as well, no matter where he lives. In addition, his name will be published in a special “corrupt persons” list specially set up at the back of the 1988 Wairarapa electoral roll which will be printed soon and released for public scrutiny on September 20.

A special page bearing his name as a “corrupt person” on which his will be the only name is beihg prepared in Wellington by the Electoral Roll Control Centre. These measures are the result of the High Court decision by which Mr Boorman was found guilty of a “corrupt practice” for exceeding his $5OOO electoral expenses limit in the 1987 election. The High Court stripped Mr Boorman of his own vote in 1987. As a person found' guilty. of a “corrupt practice” he automatically loses his vote for the next three years as from the date the court found him guilty, July 12. Mr Boorman,' as the first New Zealand politician to have been found guilty of a corrupt practice, will make history by having a whole page to himself on the “corrupt

persons” list of the new electoral roll. Mr Boorman said that he regards the action in banning him from voting in local body elections as well as Parliamentary elections as "an outrage.” It would appear that the result of the amendments to the Electoral Act, 1956, which required local body rolls to be prepared from Parliamentary rolls, had been overlooked in terms of the corrupt practices legislation. “However, if you are a corrupt person, anything is possible,” Mr Boorman said. He can have no appeal. Section 168 of the act says: “All decisions of the High Court under this part of the act shall be final and conclusive, and without appeal, and shall not be questioned in any way.”