STV confirmed for Wellington, Porirua and Kapiti

Thursday, 2 October 2008
Press Release: Electoral Reform Coalition - Wellington

MEDIA RELEASE
1st OCTOBER 2008

STV confirmed for Wellington, Porirua and Kapiti
Wellington Regional Council should adopt STV

The win for STV in Wellington City’s postal referendum confirms that the majority of local voters will use STV to elect their councils, says the Electoral Reform Coalition, which successfully campaigned for STV in 2002 and 2008. The ERC has begun a petition to have STV adopted by the Greater Wellington Regional Council.

“Once again, Wellington City voters have accepted STV (Single Transferable Vote), which is a far superior system to the old FPP voting method,” says Wellington ERC spokesperson Phil Saxby. It’s a good time to promote STV to the whole region so there can be one electoral system for the whole area, he says. “We should have one system for Wellington.”

Wellington City, Porirua and Kapiti councils all use STV, and all the District Health Boards are elected by STV. “It’s time the Regional Council adopted STV as well”.

The ERC says that the vote for STV was close in 2002 and in 2008, but questions whether the council should be spending $185,000 of ratepayers money every six years to test opinion on STV.

“STV is a better system because all votes have equal value – they are not wasted in huge numbers as with the old FPP system,” says Phil Saxby.

“You get a more representative Council – all three local Councils elected by STV have councillors elected in their 20s. How many FPP councils can say the same?” he asks.

Young councillors elected by STV locally are Hayley Wain (Wellington), Nick Leggett (Porirua) and Anne Molineux (Kapiti).

We say a big “thank you” to the voters of Wellington City and invite the whole region to support STV for future elections, says the ERC. “It’s very heartening that many Greater Wellington Regional councillors already personally support STV”, says Phil Saxby. With the petition, we hope to encourage a move to STV across the whole region.

The ERC has until the end of February to collect signatures and would welcome some help with this from the 22,000 people who voted for STV in the referendum – and from all those who care about democracy in the Wellington region.

ENDS

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