There have been big turn-outs at the Wellington Central Election meetings so far but this is not matched by the enrollment figures.

“There seem to be about 14,000 people missing from the Wellington Central Electoral Roll. This may just reflect the high mobility of the residents in the electorate and the massive boundary changes. Historically, low enrolment figures indicate that the left-wing voter turnout will be low.”

So far meetings have been well attended but the audience has usually been much older than the average voting age in the electorate. At a Youth Forum meeting in Karori on Monday night, the audience of about 100 looked more like grandparents than youths. “I am not sure that we got to the real concerns of the new voters as there were very few of them in the room. Candidates had to quickly alter their speeches to delete the comments aimed at new voters.“

ends

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>