Electoral Commission meeting summary
Decisions made at a meeting of the Electoral Commission today (29 July 2008): four relating to registration of parties or logos, five relating to listing of third parties, two relating to late donations returns, nine relating to complaints under the Electoral Finance Act 2007.
Further information is being sought in respect of three other complaints considered today, and consideration of another three complaints was deferred.
Party and logo registration
- RAM - Residents Action Movement was registered as a political party
- The Bill and Ben Party was registered as a political party, along with B&B as its abbreviated name
- A party logo was registered for New Zealand Pacific Party
- Kiwi Party was registered as an abbreviated name for The Kiwi Party
Third party listings
The commission decided to list the following five entities as third parties on Monday, 4 August 2008, unless ordered otherwise by a court:
- Maritime Union of New Zealand Inc
- New Zealand Dairy Workers Union - Te Runanga Wai U
- NZ Amalgamated Engineering, Printing & Manufacturing Union Inc
- New Zealand Meat Workers and Related Trades Union Inc
- The Service and Food Workers Union Nga Ringa Tota
Other decisions
The decisions relating to nine complaints under the Electoral Finance Act and two matters concerning late donations returns will be announced and released once written up, which is expected to be within about a week.
Other matters
The commission noted the current news media coverage relating to historical donations to New Zealand First and that the statute of limitations had expired for prosecution of electoral law offences related to donations returns for 2005. It did not consider any detail of the historical matters being covered in the news media.