Election 2020: Election Commission drops investigation into New Zealand Public Party

The Election Commission has dropped an investigation into a complaint about Billy Te Kahika’s New Zealand Public Party and its collection and use of donations.

The Commission said that because the Public Party was not a registered party, it is not subject to the rules of the Electoral Law to declare donations greater than $ 30,000.

The complaint was referred to the Commission on Wednesday by the Serious Fraud Office.

Te Kahika’s party formed an alliance with former National MP Jami-Lee Ross’s New Zealand Advanced Party in June.

In August, Advance NZ declared $ 65,633 in donations from the New Zealand Public Party.

But because the New Zealand Public Party was not a registered party, it was not subject to donation reporting obligations, so the Commission could not find any evidence of violations under the Election Law, a spokeswoman said.

“The Electoral Law does not regulate how party or candidate funds are used, other than for electoral advertising. Political parties have their own rules or constitutions and generally these are internal matters,” the spokeswoman said.

Te Kahika, who is now also a co-leader of Advance NZ, said her party had “been acquitted.”

“We pride ourselves on transparency and accountability.

“I appreciate that the Electoral Commission has acted quickly to clear our party of any wrongdoing.

“Sadly, some people, who we once trusted, have decided to launch a smear campaign in an attempt to derail the momentum we have.

“This week we learned about their smear tactics by publishing our financial records openly and publicly.”

This week, Te Kahika circulated financial information and a letter threatening a former party member with defamation after allegedly claiming that the party director was a “CIA agent”.

The documents included the amounts in donations the party received at events across the country; the most was $ 18,000 from an event at Auckland’s Logan Campbell Center.

Te Kahika said it published the documents in the “interest of openness and transparency.”

“We thank the loyal members of our party and our growing number of followers on social media for their faith in the ethics and openness of our party.

“We reserve the right to claim damages from those who make frivolous complaints to public entities while trying to promote their smear campaign.”