2020 election: Winston Peters, New Zealand’s first leader, pushes early voting as ‘scare campaign’

New Zealand’s first leader, Winston Peters, says the pressure for early voting is part of a “campaign of fear,” and is urging people to vote on Election Day.

He also spoke out against the polling day rules, calling the restrictions “a pointless sham.”

His comments come after both Labor leader Jacinda Ardern and National’s Judith Collins voted early and encouraged others to do so as well.

“For the next two weeks, our job is to make sure everyone knows that the polls are open, that they can go down and cast their vote,” Ardern said at an early voting encouragement event last week.

But speaking to the media this afternoon, Peters was encouraging the exact opposite.

“I would advise everyone to vote on election day because every day the clangers that will influence the way the elections are conducted are removed,” he said.

In addition to Ardern, the Election Commission has also been encouraging people to vote early.

A main argument is that if people vote early, there will be no rush on election day and it would be easier for people to socially distance themselves.

Peters rejected that argument today.

“This is just a scare campaign in that context. It is not consistent.”

He didn’t want to say if he was saying that Ardern was promoting this “scare campaign”, but it was very clearly a veiled reference.

“What surprised me is that all the other leaders rushed to vote in the first two days,” Peters said.

He added that voters are learning a lot about each party in the election campaign and therefore should wait until they have all the information they need before voting.

And that should be done on October 17, he said.

“It is a reflection of the old English saying that only a fool tests the water with both feet; he knows all the facts first.”

According to data from the Electoral Commission, the first three days of early voting are the highest on record.

Some 93,420 people cast their vote on Saturday, compared with 39,570 votes cast on the first day of early voting in the 2017 elections and 12,031 votes on the first day of 2014.

Peters also hit the Election Day rules, which don’t allow political campaigning, publicity or coverage until 6 p.m., when the polls close.

“It doesn’t make any sense … why carry out a pointless charade?”

He argued that those rules are not in effect for people who vote early, so why should they be on Election Day?