Referendum Results Live: Will New Zealand Legalize Cannabis and Euthanasia?

KEY POINTS:

• Preliminary results for cannabis and euthanasia will be released today at 2pm.
• The final results will be published next Friday, November 6.
• The final results will include around 480,000 special votes, so if the preliminary results are close, we may not know the full result until next Friday.
• If it’s a “yes” vote on cannabis, it will take about 18 months for the laws to change.
• If it is a “yes” to euthanasia, it will take approximately one year before terminally ill patients can apply for assisted death.

Supporters of cannabis reform will look at least a close margin in the preliminary results of the referendum, which will be released at 2:00 p.m.

Recent polls had the “no” vote on cannabis legalization substantially before the “yes” vote, but a margin of a few percentage points today could advance the “yes” vote in special votes.

“Yes” voters tend to lean to the left, data from the Curia polling company shows, and special votes also tend to lean to the left.

The final results, which include special votes, will be announced on November 6.

Meanwhile, the outcome of the euthanasia referendum is expected to support law enforcement leader David Seymour’s end-of-life election bill; a recent exit poll found that 61 percent of people had voted in favor of the bill.

You can follow the news here as it happens and watch a live broadcast hosted by Will Trafford around 1.20pm

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Seymour is hosting an event in Parliament starting at 1pm that will hear from Shirley Seales and, via Skype from New York, Matt Vickers, the mother and widowed husband of euthanasia activist Lecretia Seales.

A large margin in today’s result would effectively mark the end of Seymour’s five-year journey since he first put the End of Life Election Bill on the ballot.

“I think it is a great step forward for New Zealand as a humane and civilized society,” said Seymour, who was calmly confident of an outcome in his favor.

The referendum is binding and a majority of “yes” votes would make it law, and terminally ill patients will be able to request assisted death as of November 6 next year.

Former Prime Minister Helen Clark, who supports a “yes” vote on cannabis, told the Herald that legalizing cannabis could make a positive difference in the lives of thousands of people.

“The jury is out on whether New Zealand will move with the times, acknowledge the reality of the widespread availability and use of cannabis and regulate around that, or whether it will continue to look the other way and let the damaging impacts of prohibition continue to feel. “

Justice Minister Andrew Little will address the media in Parliament at 2.15pm today, and Green MP Chloe Swarbrick will address the media at 3pm at the Albert Park Fountain in Auckland .

At 4pm, the Say Nope to Dope campaign will hold a press conference at the Urban Soul Cafe in Manukau.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has refrained from saying how she voted in the cannabis referendum, but it is unclear if she will reveal it today or if she will wait until final results on November 6.

She voted in favor of the end of life election bill.

The Electoral Commission said the two-week wait for preliminary results of the referendum was reduced to prioritizing votes for the general elections, the preliminary results of which were released a few hours after the polls closed.

“We are guided by the Referendum Framework Law, which made it clear that the priority was to start the official count of the election results first, so that the referendum count does not delay the final results of the general elections,” said a spokeswoman of the commission.

“We have a dedicated team of about 1,200 people who count the referendum votes at the electorate headquarters. On Election Day, there were more than 20,000 people working at the polling places and counting the votes to help produce the preliminary results. of the elections “.