Maori voters get nod to sway election results

A proposal to give Maori a better chance than other New Zealanders to influence the outcome of an election could reignite calls for the abolition of the Maori seats in Parliament.

In its report on the general election the Electoral Commission recommends that Maori voters should be allowed to switch between the Maori Roll and the General Roll between elections, rather than only after each five-yearly Census.

The Commission says Maori voters have complained they could not switch rolls other than during the five-yearly Maori Electoral Option, the last of which was in 2006.

The Commission’s proposal to allow Maori voters to switch once in each three year electoral cycle instead, has won favour with Prime Minister John Key, despite National’s inclination to scrap the Maori seats.

“In broad principle I’ve never been that worried whether someone’s on the Maori roll or the general roll, it’s just personal choice,” he says.

Not surprisingly the Maori Party also supports “the Commission’s bold proposal.”

But electoral law specialist Graeme Edgeler takes a different view.

“I do not support this proposal. Such a move would create an unequal electoral system where some voters have a greater opportunity of influencing elections than others,“ he says.

“Many people opposed to the continuation of the Maori seats do so on the basis that the seats provide a discriminatory privilege to a class of people based on, effectively a racial characteristic.

“It is a useful argument to counter this view that the Maori seats are formed on the same basis as general seats and provide little substantively additional power.

“But allowing someone to switch between the two rolls at any stage during the electoral cycle would permit someone to change electorates with the intention of influencing the result: for example, to vote in a by-election, or because the polls suggest that the General or Maori electorate they may be in will have greater influence over the result.”

Mr Edgeler says the proposal would also undermine the rationale behind the retention of Maori seats, which is to allow “people of Maori descent to form a distinct group worthy of representation in the New Zealand Parliament.”

“If it is adopted, a choice to be represented through the Maori roll will be much more able to be exercised for transient tactical reasons, and not as a choice expressing Maori identity.”

The last Maori Electoral Option in 2006 saw 21,588 Maori changing the type of electoral roll they were on, with 14,294 moving from the General Roll to the Maori Roll and 7,294 moving from the Maori Roll to the General Roll.

The postponement of last year’s Census because of the Christchurch earthquakes means the next Maori Electoral Option wont be held until 2013, a situation that has infuriated at least one Maori, who is anxious to switch from the Maori Roll to the General Roll.

Clinical psychologist Dr Paul Hirini says it means he’s stuck on the Maori Roll until the next election in 2014.

“I am infuriated that I cannot get off the Maori Roll. It’s prolonging the frustration and makes a mockery of the democratic process.”

He says some political parties are not represented on the Maori seats and “we will end up with a situation that many Maori people will not turn out to vote.”

“Many of us have lost faith in the Maori Party. The amount of friends and family expressing the same frustration over the years is phenomenal.

“We are stuck and can’t get off the Maori Roll. I wish I had never gone over to it,” he said.