STV the way of the future

Single Transferable Voting looks set to be the system used in many local body elections if next year’s public referendums are favourable. This Friday the 13th will see the Dunedin STV Poll Petition received at a Mayoral reception. The petition demands the Dunedin City Council holds a public referendum on adopting STV for the next local body elections. It currently exceeds 6500 signatures, and should easily reach its target of 7500 needed to ensure the threshold of 4198 valid signatures by Friday.

Christchurch and Palmerston North, like Dunedin, need less than 1000 signatures to reach their petition targets. Christchurch has over 14,000 signatures (needing 15,000 to be sure of reaching the threshold of 11,404 valid signatures). Wellington has already had a public referendum, which voted in favour of STV last week.

Many smaller areas are also keen on STV: Kapti Coast District, Marlborough District, Chatham Islands, Kaipara District, Matamata-Piako District, Papakura District, and Porirua City councils have already adopted STV. Banks Peninsula was the first STV poll petition to reach its target; and Carterton District, Horowhenua District, and Thames District are all within small amounts of reaching their petition targets.

Dunedin Mayor Sukhi Turner was the 4000th person to sign the petition. Ms Turner is adamant STV is the fairest system to elect the city council, and feels Dunedin people should have the choice. Local MPs from both Labour and National, Pete Hodgson and Katherine Rich, have also signed the petition.

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