Govt sneaking law change through to allow it to delay local body elections

National released:

The Government must urgently explain why it wants to give itself the power to delay next year’s local body elections limitless times through to 2023, National’s Covid-19 Response spokesperson Chris Bishop and Local Government spokesperson Christopher Luxon say.

“The Government is currently able to adjourn a local election for up to six weeks in a local body election year.

“In a bill introduced to Parliament only yesterday, and now rushed through its first reading under urgency, the Government wants to empower itself to adjourn polling day multiple times without constraint – and not just in an election year, but the year after as well.

Considering local body elections are done via postal ballot, this sneaky urgent law change should be seen as a bad faith power grab, and be rejected.

If the Government really thinks its management of Covid-19 is so bad that we can’t even have local elections in October 2022, then its pretty dire for those sick of lockdowns.