Call for independent inquiry as local election turnout teeters under 40%

Local Government NZ is calling on central government to launch an inquiry into local body elections, reports The Spinoff, with turnout tracking to fall beneath 40% across the country. “We want to see a short, sharp and independent review that should feed into the Future for Local Government Review as well as the review of Parliamentary Electoral Law,” said Susan Freeman-Greene, chief executive of the association. Select committee inquiries after both the 2016 and 2019 elections called for the management of local elections to be centralised in the cause of lifting low turnout.