NEWS RELEASE
16 July 2008

STV vs FPP poll in September: are you enrolled to vote?

Wellingtonians face not one but two major polls this year – and the process is now under way toward the first poll – on whether the Single Transferable Voting (STV) or First Past the Post (FPP) electoral system is used for the 2010 and 2013 Wellington City Council elections.

Wellington Electoral Officer Ross Bly says electoral rolls are now on display so Wellingtonians can make sure they are enrolled and thus have the right to vote in the upcoming poll, to be held in September. Because the poll will be held by postal vote it is important that electors’ details on the electoral roll are accurate.

The rolls are on display during normal business hours in the Council’s City Service Centre at 101 Wakefield Street and at all libraries and PostShops throughout the city until Friday 8 August, when they close.

New enrolments or changes to incorrect address details on the electoral roll can be made by:
 completing the enrolment form at any PostShop
 telephoning 0800 ENROLNOW (0800 36 76 56)
going to www.elections.org.nz

Under the Local Electoral Act 2001, the Council, having completed two elections under STV, can reconsider what electoral system is used for the 2010 and 2013 elections. As a result, at its meeting in February, the Council decided to hold a poll of electors to ask them what voting system they wanted for the next two elections.

Poll voting papers will be posted out to all Wellington City residents on the electoral roll on Friday 5 September and results announced three weeks later, after 12 noon on Saturday 27 September. The poll will be conducted using the FPP system and the result of the poll is binding on the Council.

Mr Bly says Wellingtonians can be assured that if their names are correctly recorded on the roll as now displayed, they will have a right to vote in the September local poll and also in the General Election to be held later in the year.

ENDS

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