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Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt plans to break the new election finance laws this month in a bid to force a test case in the courts.
And he hopes to hire one of the country's top constitutional lawyers, Mai Chen, to represent him.
Mr Shadbolt says he will publish
advertisements by the end of the month that will break the Election Finance Act in at least two ways.
The Electoral Commission has warned that if he goes ahead it will consider reporting him to the police, and the National Party has also distanced itself from his plan.
Mr Shadbolt said his advertisement would tell people to vote for National and its Invercargill MP, Eric Roy, without having the necessary written authorisation from the party or the MP.
"That will make it clearly in breach of the act," he said. "It will give us a chance to fight it out in the courts where hopefully a judge will decide if it does encroach on my human rights or not."
The ad, which would focus on Southland Institute of Technology's funding, would also not include his full name and address or any authorising statement. These are legal requirements.
Mr Shadbolt may also breach the new spending limits, which require anyone advertising for an individual candidate to register as a third party if they intend spending more than $1000 in an electorate.
The limits for broader election advertising are $12,000 if not registered and $120,000 if registered.
Electoral Commission chief Helena Catt said if Mr Shadbolt did go ahead with his plans, the commission would consider reporting him to the police.
The commission was required to report any breaches unless they were so inconsequential that there was no public interest in doing so.
However, Mr Shadbolt may have difficulty finding a publication willing to run his ad - Dr Catt said it was also illegal for anyone to publish election advertisements that did not have the necessary authorisation.
Mr Shadbolt has threatened to break the new law because a change in Government policy means a loss of about $6 million in funding to Southland Institute of Technology this year.
The mayor said he opposes the Electoral Finance Act because it restricts his battling the government that introduced a policy that was damaging his region.
Mr Shadbolt is refusing to register as a third party. His breaches could be punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 for anyone who is not a third party financial agent.
Mr Shadbolt said he would ask Mai Chen for help with any legal action, as well as Christine French, the lawyer for Southland Institute of Technology. Mai Chen could not be contacted for comment yesterday.
Mr Shadbolt said his defence would be based on human rights grounds.
His advertising would be done in his personal capacity, rather than as mayor, to protect the chief executive of Invercargill District Council from legal action.
The National Party sent out a blanket statement last week refusing to endorse or authorise any third party campaigns and advised all third parties to stick to the law.
