Polling places opened in New Zealand on Saturday for a final day of voting in the country’s election, with results due to be released in the evening.
Opinion polls can’t be released on election day and exit polling or interviewing people outside voting places is banned. Partisan billboards and advertising must be removed by midnight and it’s common to see political parties’ supporters rushing to dismantle roadside hoardings at the last minute. Political leaders are pictured shopping or running errands with their families on election day, planning outings as private citizens to ensure public visibility while making no remarks about current events. Even colour is approached cautiously. Voters don’t elect a leader of the country but instead select their preferred political party and the local candidate they’d most like to represent their area. A party or coalition of parties must hold more than half of the seats in Parliament, a majority, in order to govern.
Voting began on Oct 26, with more than 1.6 million voters out of nearly 3.8 million people enrolled having already cast their ballots by the end of Thursday, according to the country’s Electoral Commission. Polling stations opened Saturday at 9 am and will close at 7 pm. The 19-hour election day blackout, which ends when polling places close, bars everyone, including political parties, news outlets and social media users, from commentary about likely election outcomes, campaign issues and anything else that might encourage or discourage them from voting in a particular way. One major party leader in 2017 allowed reporters waiting outside her home to photograph her dressed in sweatpants and painting a fence.
The country’s election day unfolds in a manner almost entirely free from politics, due to an unusual law making it a criminal offense to influence someone’s vote.
Signs outside polling venues, uniform jackets worn by electoral officers and the “orange guy” mascot who appears in election advertising, are all coloured bright orange, a shade not associated with any mainstream political party.
