ACT, NZ First Hit Back At National’s Warning Against ‘Strategic Voting’

RNZ
Parliamentary reporters

ACT
and New Zealand First have hit back at National’s warning
against ‘strategic voting’, with David Seymour saying “both
votes belong to the voter” and Winston Peters saying the
comments were “very, very ill-informed”.

At National’s
campaign launch on Sunday, Sir John Key used his speech
to caution voters against splitting their vote, saying
voters shouldn’t try do something “you think is clever” that
is the “opposite of clever.”

It referenced a
suggestion voters on the right give their party vote to a
minor party, and electorate vote to the National candidate,
with the intention of creating an overhang.

Seymour
suggested the warning was talking down to voters, and that
it was “important to respect that both votes belong to the
voter.”

“In
my experience, voters are often busy, but they’re not
stupid, and it’s never wise to talk down to them.”

He
suggested people should use the party vote to reflect their
values, and vote for the candidate that would answer their
call at 5pm on a Friday.

Peters said that it was
“rather desperate” to have a former prime minister on stage
with nobody behind him “giving out the wrong
message.”

He explained it was the wrong message
because the “very manipulation of the electoral system” Te
Pāti Māori and those on the left were engaging in “has to
have a response.”

“The response that Mr Key set out
was simply just not appropriate and not right, and was very,
very ill-informed in my view.

“For all things, and
with every action, there’s got to be a reaction. You cannot
just fail to respond. That’s what an election campaign’s
about.”

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