Thursday, July 03, 2014



The police are still ignoring electoral crime

NewstalkZB reports on the woeful state of police enforcement of our electoral laws:

The Electoral Commission is saying nothing about apparent police inaction on breaches of the electoral law.

Information provided by the Commission reveals that since the beginning of 2011 there have been 113 breaches of the Electoral Act that it's referred to police for investigation.

Not one has resulted in a prosecution.


According to a report in January last year, only five of those cases had been resolved, with none resulting in prosecution. The others were still under "investigation" - including 62 cases of double voting. But if they don't sort it out by November, then the prosecution time-limit will kick in, and these people will escape justice.

Its crystal clear that the police do not regard this as a priority, and instead would rather focus on "real crime", like personal drug use. I've said it before and I'll say it again: if they don't want to do the job they're funded to do, we should take it off them and give it to someone who will do it: the Electoral Commission.