Campaign aims to identify extremists

WELLINGTON: A firstofitskind campaign was launched yesterday, aimed at helping voters in local body elections identify conspiracy theorists and extremists.

Local Government New Zealand is behind the move to educate voters, with its guide to getting to know their local body candidates.

Antimisinformation group Fact Aotearoa has identified candidates with extreme views or association with antivax or antiGovernment movements.

It had identified 170 candidates of concern and many were trying to hide their extreme views, it said.

Massey University Centre for Defence and Security Studies director Dr William Hoverd said some would inevitably find success.

‘‘Extreme individuals will get on to local body government and local body councils, simply because we have such low and apathetic voter turnout in those spaces.

‘‘People won’t even know who they’re voting for or why — they’ll just get on, and then if that candidate is able to engender particular support as well then it’s going to make them even more powerful.’’

People with ideas outside the mainstream had always sought elected office, but this year it was particularly apparent as the 23day occupation of Parliament had unified and galvanised groups with little in common other than their dissatisfaction with the Government, Dr Hoverd said.

‘‘What’s new is how the vaccine mandate, dissatisfaction with the Jacinda Ardern government and the Wellington protest have fuelled the proliferation of these types of ideas and dissent in local body elections.’’

Low voter turnout was a critical factor in the ability for extreme candidates to gain seats of power.

An example was Tauranga. At the 2020 general election, political parties pushing conspiracy theories or extremist ideologies got about 4% of the vote — only marginally more than they garnered nationwide.

But in this year’s byelection, candidates from those same parties picked up more than 7.5% despite fewer votes being cast for them compared with 2020.

That was the impact of a 40% turnout at the byelection compared with almost 85% in 2020.

Local Government New Zealand chief executive Susan FreemanGreene agreed turnout was a problem.

‘‘We need to do a much better job of shifting our voter turnout from the 40% it is at the moment closer to what happens in general elections, which is about 80% .’’

She hoped educating and empowering voters would send more to the polls.

‘‘This is a timely reminder that while all candidates have bios in

Dr William Hoverd

the voting papers, it’s important to do your own research into people running so you know how they will work together, represent the community’s views and what their policy positions are.’’

LGNZ’s campaign encouraged people to go to meetthecandidate type events and go armed with questions such as ‘‘What do you see as the biggest challenges facing your community?’’, ‘‘Why are you running this election?’’ and ‘‘What are your thoughts around the role of local and central government in New Zealand?’’

Voters should also visit the policy.nz website, where candidates had provided their views on a range of topics.

The difficulty was that many extremists were attempting to hide their views, Fact Aotearoa spokesman Stephen Judd said.

‘‘Everybody has the right to run and everybody has the right to their own ideas — that’s not in dispute. The issue is when people have ideas and affiliations but they don’t disclose them so when the public comes to vote for them, they’re not aware of what they are voting for.’’

The Disinformation Project research fellow Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa said concerns had been known for months, so the campaign was ‘‘better late than never’’.

He doubted the public would be interested enough to carry out much research on the people they were voting for, he said.

A lack of interest in local government was evident before the Covid19 pandemic began.

It was helping fringe candidates infiltrate it, and ‘‘offered [them] the greatest chance of getting elected’’ and then being able to undermine democracy from within.

‘‘We need to have a national conversation on regulatory law, campaign finance and a whole spectrum of other issues that are going to set back electoral integrity in this country in the future.’’

Fact Aotearoa had been checking up on reports from concerned voters; the group had been doing this by looking at candidates’ earlier statements or images, including scrutiny of social media posts, Mr Judd said.

About 350 candidates had been flagged by the public and while some had been eliminated for not causing the group concern, that still left about 170 to 200, Mr Judd said.

‘‘In terms of the concerns there’s a spectrum because some people are pretty clear and other people are riding under quite bland presentation, but actually in the past have expressed strong support for conspiracy thinking.’’

The best advice for voters was to engage directly with candidates and ask them questions, whether that was in person, by email or by phoning them.

‘‘Anyone who is running for public office should welcome that kind of engagement from the public.’’ — RNZ

❛ Extreme individuals will get on to to local body government and local body councils, simply because we have such low and apathetic voter turnout in those spaces