MEDIA RELEASE

Tuesday 25 August 2009

Chief Electoral Office
Ministry of Justice

Final Result Of Citizens Intiated Referendum

The Chief Electoral Officer has released the final result of the Citizens Initiated Referendum on the question “Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?”.

2009 Citizens Initiated Referendum Final Result

Votes / Number of Votes Received / Percentage of Total Valid Votes
For the response Yes / 201,541 / 11.98 %
For the response No / 1,470,755 / 87.4%
Informal votes* / 10,421 / 0.62%
Total valid votes / 1,682,717 / 100%

*An informal vote is where the voter has not clearly indicated the response they wish to vote for.

Voter turnout is 56.09%. Turnout is calculated by taking the total votes cast of 1,684,402 (being total valid and invalid votes) as a percentage of the total number of voters enrolled as at 30 July 2009 (3,002,968).

The number of invalid votes cast was 1,685 or 0.1% of total votes cast. Invalid votes are excluded from the count and include, for example, voting papers received late, those that cannot be processed because the voter has made the barcode unreadable, or voting papers cancelled as a result of replacement voting papers being issued.

The final result, including a breakdown by electorate, is available from www.electionresults.govt.nz.

The official declaration of the referendum results will be available from www.elections.org.nz.

ENDS

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