New STV website launched

http://www.stvnz.org/

The Electoral Reform Coalition is pleased to announce the launch of their new ‘STV in Local Elections’ website.

Wellington and Whangarei go to the polls within a month to decide whether to adopt STV (Single Transferable Voting) for the 2004 and 2007 local body elections. In other council districts, electoral reform advocates are trying to force binding referenda by collecting signatures of 5% of the local electorate.

There are now poll demand campaigns running in at least 22 local councils, and our website has a page for each. Pages include details of the number of signatures required for each poll demand, contact details for local campaigners, along with news, events and thermometer graphics showing the progress of the signature gathering.

The website encourages visitors to ‘Take Action’ by printing out the downloadable petitions provided in MS Word and PDF format. For those wishing to write their own ‘Letter to the Editor’ there are samples of letters that have already been published.

Dunedin, Palmerston North and Banks Peninsula are over halfway to their goals and Christchurch and Auckland City have collected thousands of signatures.

Other highlights of the site include a series of articles explaining STV by electoral reform expert Stephen Todd from the Wellington branch of the Electoral Reform Coalition. There are also details of what all 86 NZ councils decided - STV or FPP (First Past the Post) - and lots of useful links to resources and STV in the news.

For more information, http://www.stvnz.org/

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