The overwhelming trend in local body elections across New Zealand is apathy.
Not voting seems to be the clear choice in this round of local and regional council and health board elections, with about only one in four bothering to cast their votes.
Today is the last dayfor posting voting papers to ensure they arrive in time to be counted. The returns are expected to the lowest in voting history.
Local Government New Zealand manager of local governance Mike Reid said today the lowest voter turnouts were in the big cities, where people didn't know much about who they were voting for.
"It's better they make an informed vote than just vote. On the other hand, we ought to be asking some questions about why people aren't making use in that opportunity they have got.
"There are lots of places in the world where people are fighting in the streets simply to have the freedom to vote, to choose their political leaders."
Auckland mayoral candidate Alex Swney (crrt) said there was no major issue in the city galvanising people to vote and said people had their attention on other things - like the rugby.
"We just need to look at the game the other day and look how many black jerseys there were in the stadium in Cardiff, so there's obviously a lot of New Zealanders away," he told Radio New Zealand.
"The World Cup is absorbing the first four pages of most newspapers."
Also, the seven week voting period meant there was no intensity to the election process. Mr Swney called for a four-week window for the populace to exercise their democratic muscle.
"That would bring a lot of the issues into sharper focus and increase the intensity of the debate. I think as a result of that we would get a larger turnout," he said.
In 2004, the total voter turnout was 47 per cent. So far this time around, electoral officers questioned by NZPA had received back between 21 and 33 per cent of the voting papers sent out.
