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ANALYSIS: On Friday, more than half a million special votes were added to the preliminary counts in the cannabis and euthanasia referendums.
The votes changed support for the legalization of cannabis from 46.1 percent, according to the preliminary count, to a final result of 48.4 percent in favor.
The “no” vote went from 53.1% to 50.7%, the minimum majority.
The Electoral Commission also released new data showing how referendum votes fell across the country’s 72 electorates.
READ MORE:
* Euthanasia referendum: the End of Life Choice Act is officially approved with a 65% majority
* Tears and anger that special votes failed to reverse the narrow defeat of the cannabis referendum
* Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern responds to the results of the final elections and the referendum
The ‘no’ vote was especially strong in Auckland’s eastern and southern electorates, along with rural Canterbury.
Botany (66.1 percent against), Pakuranga (63.2 percent) and the new electorate of Takanini (59.8 percent) registered the strongest opposition to legalization. Canterbury electorates of Rangitata, Selwyn and Waimakariri registered votes against between 58 and 59 percent.
Those three Canterbury constituencies, along with Pakuranga and Botany, are traditional strongholds of the National Party (although Labor MP Jo Luxton won a surprise victory in Rangitata in this election). National opposed legalizing cannabis.
Urban centers and communities disproportionately affected by cannabis laws returned the strongest numbers in favor of the proposed bill to legalize cannabis.
In all, 17 general constituencies voted in favor of the measure, which would have brought the cannabis legalization and control bill before Parliament this year.
Many of those constituencies were in major centers.
Wellington Central led the pack, with 73 percent of voters in favor of legalization.
Four other Wellington electorates were in favor: Rongotai (66.1%), Mana (53%) Ōhāriu (52.6%) and Hutt South (51.7%).
ROBERT KITCHEN / Things
Burning at his cabinet swearing-in ceremony on Friday.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern revealed after preliminary results were announced last week that she had voted in favor of legalization.
His constituency, Mt Albert, was one of four Auckland electorates who voted in favor, along with Auckland Central and the electorates of Kelston and New Lynn west of Auckland.
Dunedin and three Christchurch constituencies were the other urban centers that voted “yes.”
Beyond cities, the ‘yes’ vote found support among some constituencies that host communities with large Maori populations, including the East Coast, Northland and Whangārei.
Cannabis legalization activists argued in the run-up to the referendum that New Zealand’s cannabis laws were systematically racist.
The research showed that Maori were three times more likely to end up in court for cannabis-related offenses despite using the drug at rates similar to the general population, they said.
But on Friday, Ardern said that “a majority is a majority” and ruled out any attempt by the reelected Labor government to legalize or decriminalize the drug, despite the tight bottom line.
The end-of-life referendum generated much less controversy.
Across New Zealand, the ‘yes’ vote prevailed by margins greater than 10 percentage points in all of Auckland’s southern neighboring general electorates except three: Māngere, Manurewa and Panmure-Ōtāhuhu (including votes cast in the list Maori electorates of Tāmaki Makaurau in those areas). ).
Māngere voted 60 percent for ‘no’, repudiating euthanasia by an overwhelming 23 percentage points. The vote was closest in Manurewa, with 52 percent “no” votes, and in Panmure-Ōtāhuhu, where the “no” vote was 51 percent.
The three constituencies span an area traditionally populated by low-income and minority residents, including the three largest population proportions of Pasifika peoples in the country, according to the 2018 Census.
Christianity also has deep roots in South Auckland. Voters are also the top three in New Zealand by proportion of the Christian population.
More than half of their combined population identified themselves as Christian in the census, with a proportion as high as 60 percent in Māngere.
On the other hand, the liberal and urban areas of New Zealand strongly supported the end of life bill. Chlöe Swarbrick’s Auckland Central and Wellington Central further to the left passed the referendum with the approval of at least three-quarters of their voters, with 76% (a 53 percentage point margin) and 75.5% (a 52 percentage point margin percentage) respectively. These electorates also lead the country in lack of religious affiliation, according to 2018 Census data.
The referendum also fared well at Epsom, the local constituency of ACT leader David Seymour, who proposed the original member’s euthanasia bill. Epsom residents voted “yes” at an above-average rate.
