KEY POINTS:
The Electoral Commission say it does not have enough money to run an effective information campaign about next year's election at a time when the number of people who are disinterested in the political process is growing.
The commission said in its Statement of Intent that its annual budget and extra money for election information had not changed since it was set up in 1994.
It faced internal cost pressures declining buying power.
"If funding for the election information campaign is not increased for future elections then the Electoral Commission will not be able to deliver an MMP information campaign of equal reach and penetration as in 2005," the commission said.
"In consequence we will not be able to deliver an MMP information campaign that achieves a level of 80 percent of the public understand the role of the votes at the time of the election."
The commission said this came as overall public interest in politics and elections continued to decline.
"Turnout at the 2005 general election was higher than in 2002, but still the third lowest since 1951. This pattern is evident whether taken as percentage of those enrolled or of the age-eligible population."
While there were fluctuations the overall trend was to falling numbers of voters.
As well as overall levels of decline, there were some groups where participation and understanding of the system was significantly lower than for the general population.
"In particular Maori, young people and Pacific people have lower levels of engagement. Demographic trends indicate that these groups are becoming a larger proportion of the population."
Research indicated that in order to interest people in how the electoral system worked, they first had to be engaged with the wider political system.
- NZPA
