WAR DEFAULTERS HAVE NO VOTE IN THE ELECTION

Wanganui Chronicle, 5 October 1949, Page 6

WAR DEFAULTERS HAVE NO VOTE IN THE ELECTION

WELLINGTON, Last Night (PM). —Those conscientious objectors who were classed as defaulters during the war hav e not yet had their voting rights restored and because of the Wartime Emergency Regulations, will not be able to vote at the general election.

The New Zealand Inter-Church Council on Public Affairs has approached the Prime Minister (Mr. Fraser) asking for restoration of the right of these men to vote. So far Mr. Fraser has taken no action. The secretary of the inter-Church Council, Mr. C. Gibson Young, said tonight that the council had written to the Prime Minister and offered to send a deputation to discuss the position. Tho council was concerned that those men who were classed as objectors and released on parole were still not deemed to have been discharged. and, under the Electoral Emergency Regulations, 1943, were disqualified from enrolling and voting. In a letter to the Prime Minister on behalf of the council, Mr. Gibson Young said “In view of (1) the strong desire of many Christian people that stigma attaching to defaulters under the Electoral Emergency regulations, 1943, should be removed, and that they should be finally discharged from the military forces,, and (2) the imminence of a general election, on behalf of this council 1 would plead for immediate and sympathetic reconsideration of the position of these men, many of whom are otherwise worthy citizens.”