Referenda concerns after Māori ward candidates excluded from info booklet

Māori ward candidates across Te Tauihu are bristling at being left out of the local election candidate information booklets.

Tasman, Nelson, and Marlborough each have one Māori Ward seat and only one person has stood for election in each of the three wards, leaving the candidates all elected unopposed.

The Local Electoral Act only requires electoral officers to send out candidate profile statements when there was an election, meaning unopposed candidates didn’t need to be published.

However, Nelson’s incumbent Māori Ward councillor Kahu Paki Paki, who will be returning to the council next term, said it was “quite appalling” for them to be excluded when their wards were up for debate.

“In the election period where we are deciding the fate of the Māori Ward, the Māori ward [candidates] are not even part of the conversation… That’s a massive letdown.”

He highlighted that Māori have historically been disconnected and disenfranchised from elections and said that excluding the candidates could exacerbate lower Māori engagement.

Marlborough’s Allanah Burgess is returning to her council next term but was left “gutted” and “frustrated” after being excluded.

She, like Kahu, thought their exclusion would impact their districts’ Māori Ward referendum.

“It’s unfair, and it’s not on. Because now, people, they’ve got to vote for the Māori Ward, and then they’re like, ‘Well, who is our Māori Ward [candidate]? Do we even have one still?’”

She adds that some voters were confused as to if she was still running and suggests that candidates who were elected unopposed could still be included in a separate section of the booklet.

“We talk about making informed decisions, and we’re not even providing them with enough information to do that.”

The exclusion affected all positions that were filled without an election, such as Marlborough’s Wairau-Awatere Ward where all three candidates were elected unopposed. Candidate Scott Adams said it would have “been good” to be included in the booklet, but acknowledged that being included but unable to be voted for might have confused voters.

Returning councillor Sally Arbuckle, added that she would have had liked to be included.

“I know that we’ve gone in unopposed, but it’s still not like everybody within our region knows exactly who we are and what we represent.”

Warwick Lampp from Electionz.com is the electoral officer for Nelson and Marlborough.

He said the legislation, since it was first introduced in 2001, only required information about candidates to be sent out where there was an election.

“It doesn’t require us to send profiles for those that are elected unopposed, so we don’t.”

While he said there was nothing that prohibited unopposed candidates from being published in the booklet, he added that there had been no specific discussion around publishing the candidates within the context of the referenda on Māori wards. “We’re not required to do it; it is what it is.”

He highlighted that those councils’ websites displayed the information for all candidates, including those elected unopposed.

But Kahu didn’t accept their arguments and said being excluded from the booklet was a “very poor decision”, especially as it had no impact on the outcome of the entire election. “We’re trying to encourage people to vote, and by not having the information there, it has an adverse effect,” he said.

“I never cease to be let down by our current electoral system. It seems at every turn that we are disadvantaged and that there is another barrier for Māori to gain confidence in the electoral system.”