The local body elections finished Saturday midday and results were announced soon after that. There were surprises in some areas but not in others. Mayor Len Brown was re-elected in Auckland. Mayor Tim Shadbolt was re-elected in Southland for the 7th time. Some places have a new mayor, like Christchurch where Lianne Dalziel was chosen. She resigned from Parliament last month so that she could become mayor.
However, less than half the people voted. Throughout the country the average was only about 40% of all those who were eligible to vote. Every time we have an election, the percentage of people who vote is lower. This is a worry to politicians and to those who believe in a democracy. Various people have given various reasons for the low interest in the election. Here are some of the reasons:
Three weeks is too long.
A postal vote is not a good idea. Some people don’t use the postal service any more or live too far from a post box.
People don’t know what local government does.
People don’t know who the candidates are.
There were no important issues.
There were too many candidates.
STV voting system used for some councils was too hard.
Here are some of the suggestions.
Have on-line voting and then young people will be interested.
Give people one week only and have polling places as well on the last day.
Candidates should use You Tube to let people know more about them.
There will need to be changes before the next local body elections.
Vocabulary
- local body organisations e.g. local councils
- eligible (adj) – allowed to vote i.e. have lived in the area for a year etc.
- various (adj) – different, a variety (n)
- candidate – person who wants to be elected
- issues – matters that people are concerned about
- STV – single transferable vote where voters had to rank candidates, put 1, 2, 3 etc in front of each candidate
- polling places – where people go to vote.