The Prime Minister is being called upon to “take much more care” with his public comments after he laid down strong expectations of the Electoral Commission, an entity that is independent of Government.
Christopher Luxon on Friday morning was responding to statements by the commission that legislation currently before Parliament ending same-day enrolment was unlikely to speed up the process of counting votes after an election.
He said he expected counting to be faster considering the Government was intending to halt enrolments nearly two weeks before election day.
“You don’t just move it back two weeks and then say we’re going to stick with the same deadline,” he said on Friday.
“We’re living in 2025. I just suggest that the vote can be counted a hell of a lot faster than what we have experienced in New Zealand. Go look at other Western economies around the world and how fast they count their vote. We must be the slowest folk on the planet, I would suggest to you.
“My expectation is that they will go back and look at their processes and they will do everything they can to move heaven and earth to count the vote in New Zealand very, very quickly to ensure we have a functioning democracy that we should be very proud of, that we count votes appropriately, quickly, fast and we get a result through to the New Zealand people quickly.”
The PM repeated that he expected the commission to “count the votes fast”.
Luxon said New Zealanders were more than capable of enrolling nearly two weeks out from an election, a dismissal of criticism that removing same-day enrolment would make it more difficult for some people to vote.
Professor Dean Knight, an academic at the Victoria University of Wellington who specialises in constitutional law, told the Herald the Prime Minister “needs to take much more care here”.
“[He] mustn’t try to lean on the Electoral Commission. He should know better,” said Knight.
“The Electoral Commission is an independent Crown entity and the Electoral Act spells out that it is required to operate independently when doing its work.
“For obvious constitutional reasons, ministers can’t give formal directions to a body like the Electoral Commission and nor should ministers do so with casual and pointed remarks about their wishes or expectations.”
He said the commission was charged to administer elections impartially, efficiently and effectively, mindful of the need for participation and confidence in the system.
“It’s not for politicians to be meddling in that. The risks to our democracy are too great. Of course, the Government has one lever properly open to it to enable a quicker result; it can increase the funding and resources available to the commission for the count.”
A spokesman for the Prime Minister said: “The Prime Minister was reflecting New Zealanders’ views on the core role of the Electoral Commission.”
The Crown Entities Act 2004 and Cabinet Manual say ministers “may not direct an independent Crown entity to have regard to government policy unless specifically provided for in an act”.
In response to Luxon’s comments, Chief Electoral Officer Karl Le Quesne said the commission understood “how important it is to deliver a timely election result”.
“It is also critically important that any result we deliver is correct and all the necessary checks are undertaken so the public can trust the result,” he said.
“What slows the process is the growing number of special votes, which take longer to check and then count. For example, all overseas votes need to be returned to NZ to be counted.
“However, we can give an assurance we are working hard on strategies to deliver election results faster.
“The commission will continue to provide information to ministers and Parliament as they work through the passage of the Electoral Amendment Bill.”
At a parliamentary select committee on Thursday, Le Quesne said it was forecast the vote count at the 2026 election would still take 20 days, the same as it took to count votes in 2023.
That’s despite the legislation before Parliament stopping same-day enrolment. Enrolment would instead close 13 days before an election.
Le Quesne explained 20 days would still be needed, in part because the commission was forecasting about 700,000 special votes at the next election that would need integrity checks. Anyone enrolling between Writ Day and the 13-day cut-off would be a special vote.
Labour’s Duncan Webb questioned what the point of the legislation was if the Electoral Commission wasn’t forecasting its count would speed up as a result. Le Quesne responded by saying the commission hadn’t recommended the change.
Webb told the Herald the decision to progress the legislation was made knowing it wouldn’t speed up vote counting.
“Luxon is intentionally tilting the political playing field in his favour. Making it harder for people to have their say shows how out of touch Christopher Luxon really is.
“Over 200,000 people relied on enrolling during early voting or on election day last time and he is intentionally making it harder for them to vote.”
Webb called for the changes to be dismissed.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith, when announcing the change in July, said the legislation was intended to reduce strain on the system and warned that if no action was taken, it could take longer than 20 days in the future.
The Regulatory Impact Statement on the policy says Goldsmith had “expressed an expectation that the vote count should be able to be completed within 14 days of election day for the 2026 general election”. This had been the length before 2020.
Officials warned it was “uncertain” whether any changes could reduce the timeframe down to 14 days “without compromising the accuracy of the results”.
However, “without change”, the officials said, the growth in special votes and a trend of later enrolments was expected to continue.
“These trends have already led to the official results being released later than in previous elections. If they are not addressed, then the current timeframes for the official count may eventually become unachievable and require further extension.”
Goldsmith, after the Electoral Commission’s comments, said advice clearly stated one of the primary reasons for the vote count period extending from two weeks to almost three was because of the “massive increase in special votes”.
“Without changes, [this] could take even longer. Combined with other changes such as the introduction of automatic enrolment, the Government’s expectation is the Electoral Commission speeds up the vote count process over time.
“If you want to vote, you need to be enrolled. People have about a year to get organised. I have every confidence New Zealanders can manage.”
Jamie Ensor is a senior political reporter in the NZ Herald press gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist this year for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.