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A Māori political scientist says the Electoral Commission needs to explain why it hasn’t yet fixed problems for Māori voters at mainstream polling booths identified in both the 2017 and 2020 general elections.
Veronica Tawhai from Massey University says many Maori were made to feel like they were a nuisance, because mainstream booths didn’t have Maori rolls or Maori electorate voting papers, so they were forced to make special votes.
She says they’re not made to feel like that when they are able to vote at what would be regarded Māori polling places.
“You know, a Maori venue – be it a marae space, be it a kura, be it a iwi office – we know that we have manaakitanga. That te reo, tikanga, you know the right to be on the Maori Roll has an absolute equal status, and its valued and respected. And that is not what we are experiencing in other places,” she says.
Associate Professor Tawhai says the Electoral Commission has had two elections to do better – and she’s yet to see evidence it is doing something about the problem.
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