6 November 2018

The Opportunities Party (TOP) will run their first ever leadership election on the emerging global technology, Blockchain. Horizon State, a New Zealand technology firm based in Porirua, will provide the mobile election services with which members of the party will be able to vote from their phones. The blockchain-secured approach will be a first for New Zealand.

Horizon State offers one of the world’s most powerful and reliable digital ballot box systems. The company has been selected as one of the World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers for 2018. They join the ranks of AirBnB, Google, Kickstarter and Spotify. Their robust platform drives engagement from the deliberation phase through secure, blockchain-powered voting.

“TOP has made a brave choice - to run a fully transparent and inclusive process. This act has the potential to set a new standard in the NZ political arena, and is the kind of forward and inclusive thinking that I believe appeals to many in our country. The potential to tap into the wider audience when deliberating and designing policies is what pure democracy is about.” Nimo Naamani, Horizon State’s co-founder.

TOP’s leadership election will use Preferential Voting (STV) in which each voter indicates their preferences ranked from first to last.

Geoff Simmons, the interim leader of The Opportunities Party, will stand down as leader during the election. He will campaign to be elected in this leadership contest. Geoff says “When I took over as leader of The Opportunities Party, I committed to giving our members a greater say. I hope that more people join our already healthy membership of around 4,000 and they all take the chance to have their say. I encourage anyone who has what it takes to lead this unique party to stand. Whoever wins will have my full support.”

The timeline of the election is below:

Nov 6th; 12pm: Nominations Open. Candidates will campaign as soon as their nominations are confirmed.

Nov 13th; 12pm: Nominations close.

Nov 15th; 8pm: Candidates are declared.

Nov 23rd: First video debate. Crowdsourced election questions from each volunteer region and member submissions.

Nov 30th: Second video debate.

December 1st: Campaigning ends. Balloting opens.

December 8th: Balloting closes and winners are announced.

More information on the election can be found at the www.top.org.nz/elections

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