By LIAM DANN
With the election of Fonterra directors closing on Friday, there are fears that dairy farmers may be suffering from voter fatigue.
Turnout to candidate meetings around the country has been extremely low.
Only 43 of Northland's 1300 Fonterra suppliers attended the candidate roadshow when it visited Whangarei this month.
After
three years of restructuring, farmers were "pretty well voted-out", said Dairy Farmers of New Zealand chairman Kevin Wooding.
Meeting attendance had been low right across the country, he said.
Despite that, it was crucial that farmers made the effort to vote.
"We're trying to encourage them to have their say.
"We would be very disappointed if there was a low turnout," said Mr Wooding.
Eleven candidates from a variety of farming and business backgrounds are standing for three vacant positions on the Fonterra board.
A national series of roadshows was organised to let farmers meet candidates in person.
Just 35 farmers attended the Southland meeting in Invercargill.
The turnout was marginally better in other areas. Seventy-eight farmers out of about 500 shareholders in the South Auckland region attended a meeting at Pukekohe.
About 50 per cent of Fonterra's 12,500 shareholders turned out to vote in last year's elections.
Shareholders Council chairman Tony O'Boyle said he was still optimistic farmers would get in behind the elections.
A comprehensive video profiling each of the candidates had been sent to shareholders this year. That could have had some impact on the turnouts, he said.
Returning officers Carolyn Mason and Mike Linnegar said they were expecting a big influx of votes in the last week.
Last year, more than half of the votes cast arrived in the last week.
The elections are by postal ballot and use the single transferable vote (STV) system, which requires voters to rank candidates in their preferred order.
Voting closes at midday on Friday and votes can be faxed through until the last minute.
