Whanganui has topped the poll in terms of voter involvement in this year's local body elections but at least one observer says councils

COMMENT: Two-thirds of eligible voters chose not to vote in the local government elections. Should we be unimpressed?

Top Republican all but concedes Hillary Clinton will win the presidential campaign.

COMMENT: Almost every country has a written constitution, whereas New Zealand has only 'scraps of legislation' uncodified and largely unintelligible.

mattmartinserious.eps*Rotorua mayoralty results 2013- Steve Chadwick 11,630- Kevin Winters 4789- Rob Kent 2462- Janine RangiMarie

They're not old enough to vote, but schoolchildren are having their say at the ballot box in order to learn more about how elections work.

COMMENT: Journalist Erin Cunningham writes that a boom shook her building near Taksim Square during the attempted coup.

More than 30 people attended two candidate workshops in the Ruapehu area recently for those interested in standing in the local body

COMMENT: There has been some debate among New Zealand political commentators about whether a candidate like Donald Trump could emerge in New Zealand, writes Stephen Mills.

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders is preparing for a protracted battle with Hillary Clinton.

Our society is certainly not perfect, but the freedoms we enjoy have been hard fought for, writes Peter Lyons. We often fail to appreciate this rich history that we have been very fortunate to inherit.

People responsible for responding to OIA requests will need to take more care in identifying the documents that have been requested and considering their content, writes Nick Russell.

If governments want to play by secret squirrel rules they can hardly accuse those who raise alarms based on best available information of scaremongering, writes Jane Kelsey.

It is frustrating that serious human rights abuses in Indonesian-controlled West Papua continue to fly below the radar, Maire Leadbeater.

Let's do away with the technology and at least experiment with a return to a more traditional form of voting in local elections - a ballot box, writes Dr Andy Asquith.

New Zealand has such a rich history of extraordinary and ground breaking women in sport, politics, academia and the arts, writes Cathy Casey. How should we celebrate their achievements?

Using randomly selected juries to make some council-level policy suggestions is arguably a good starting point for organically growing a system for Auckland, writes Nicholas Ross Smith and Zbigniew Dumienski.

Those military officers will continue to dominate politics, because 25 per cent of the votes, according to the 2008 constitution, can block any changes to the constitution, writes Gwynne Dyer.

An Auckland Council committee will consider establishing a 'Rainbow Community Advisory Panel' on Wednesday at an annual unbudgeted cost of $116,880.

Sixteen Egyptians were killed in clashes around the country as the people went to the streets to protest against the Government on the fourth anniversary of the uprising that led to the removal of President Hosni Mubarak.

We show you how SkyCity's new convention centre would look in central Auckland, as details are revealed for the first time in its resource consent applications.

Yesterday we saw how progress has been made on matters where both language versions of the Treaty say the same thing. Those areas are predominantly natural resources and cultural treasures.

The new Hunger Games Movie has reportedly been banned from a number of cinemas in Thailand after protesters adopted the film's hand gesture as an anti-authority symbol.

It's time that we grew up as a nation when it comes to diplomatic courtesy. It's time the Greens revoked their "unofficial ban" on visiting political leaders addressing the New Zealand Parliament.

Fresh clashes broke out in Hong Kong as riot police used batons and pepper spray on pro-democracy demonstrators after they were ordered to leave.

Pro-democracy protesters are continuing demonstrations in Hong Kong, with riot police responding with tear gas. What set it all off?

Pro-democracy protesters may have engaged in a night of battles with police, but then they cleaned up and apologised to police who pepper-sprayed them.