National complains to Electoral Commission over vote-splitting campaign as ACT and NZ First back similar ads
National has complained to the Electoral Commission about a campaign telling centre-right voters to split their votes. The Commission has confirmed it is investigating, 1News reported on 30 October. The campaign's website, splityourvote.co.nz, has been taken offline.
The campaign was run by businessman Harry Mowbray. It urged voters to give their electorate vote to National and their party vote to ACT or New Zealand First. According to 1News, the Commission is examining advertising linked to the campaign and whether it was properly authorised.
A National Party spokesperson called the campaign a "deliberate attempt" to confuse voters. The spokesperson said it "did not comply with the election rules everyone has to operate under. We referred it to the Electoral Commission, but we doubt we were the only ones."
The complaint is aimed at Mowbray. But the same argument has also appeared in newspaper advertising approved by National's two coalition partners. That leaves National at odds with ACT and NZ First over how centre-right voters should vote, with polling day on 7 November.
ACT and NZ First each approved a Reality Check Radio ad that ran in the NZ Herald. The Herald reports that the ads are written in the name of Don Brash, the former National and ACT leader. The ads argue that National will probably win more electorates than its party vote entitles it to, creating an overhang. "Once that happens, party votes for National will not produce any more National MPs," they say, according to the Herald. "Meanwhile, voters for Act or NZ First will produce extra right side MPs."
