Tauranga byelection: Issues arise for Jan Tinetti campaign after breaking electoral rules

By RNZ

Tauranga-based Labour list MP and byelection candidate Jan Tinetti's campaign could get in trouble with the Electoral Commission after it made posts encouraging people to vote for her on by-election polling day.

Under electoral law, candidates and parties are forbidden from campaigning on polling day.

This includes social media posts.

But the Facebook page for the Labour candidate made a post saying "hashtag vote, hashtag Tinetti for Tauranga", and reminding people today was their last chance to vote.

A Tinetti spokesperson said they became aware of the post within an hour of it being up, and took it down immediately.

The Labour Party spent the day breaking the law encouraging people to vote for Jan Tinetti in the by-election. pic.twitter.com/WiS9sK6u9J

— Christopher Bishop (@cjsbishop) June 18, 2022

An Electoral Commission spokesperson said in a statement, " I can confirm we became aware of the posts earlier today and contacted the Labour Party. The posts were taken down."

National's Sam Uffindell was crowned the city's new MP on Saturday night after he won the by-election's preliminary votes with a 6038 majority.

Uffindell had more than twice as many votes as Tinetti, finishing the count with 10,931 compared to Tinetti's 4893.

Asked if the Tauranga byelection was a "drubbing" for the left, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told RNZ this morning the outcome for Tinetti was one of Labour's better results in Tauranga for decades.

Byelections weren't the same as general elections, she said. "I'm not quick to read into general outcomes."

"Byelections, it is a bit hard to extrapolate too many lessons from them."