Walford referred to police over election advert breach

The Electoral Commission has referred Wayne Walford, the National Party candidate for Napier, to the police ove a breach of the election advertising rules.

The Electoral Commission says it has referred Napier National Party candidate Wayne Walford to Police for displaying election advertising on a sign-written vehicle promoting his candidacy and the party.
"It is the Electoral Commission's view that the vehicle signage constitutes a breach of sections 204F and 204H of the Electoral Act as it did not include a promoter statement and was not authorised in writing by the party secretary," the commission said in a statement.
Mr Walford said it was "a totally unintentional mistake" that signage on the vehicle omitted the required statement and the ute in question was currently off the road while replacement signage, that met the requirements, was applied.
"I've apologised to the Electoral Commission and to the National party and I've accepted full responsibility and we're in the process of waiting to see what happens," Mr Walford said.
"The authorisation statement hadn't been put on. It had been printed but it had been omitted when they did the job [of applying the signage to the ute]. I didn't check."
A spokesman for Police National Headquarters said a referral from the Electoral Commission in relation to the matter had been received and was being assessed.