Editorial: Warning enough for Dagg

Israel Dagg. Photo / Glenn Taylor

The decision by the Electoral Commission to refer our rugby star Israel Dagg to the police over a tweet he made on election day this year seems a bit rough.

Dagg, rugby legend Jonah Lomu and champion rower Eric Murray were among 26 incidents referred to police in response to complaints about social media activity on election day.

Dagg got in trouble when he sent a tweet to his more than 83,000 Twitter followers saying: "Just voted for @johnkeypm and the National party all the best for tonight #blueallday #National".

I must say I was quite surprised that Dagg seemed unaware of the strict rules on election day, but I suppose it is my job as a journalist to know those sort of things while many out there may simply have never known about it.

The whole point of the rule is so that voters will be able to make their own choice without being intimidated or persuaded. However, there is a good argument these days that all the early voting that is allowed means that election day is not special anymore.

Prime Minister John Key said yesterday that people had to obey the law and he is 100 per cent correct there.

But, I feel that maybe the Electoral Commission could have been a little lenient in the cases of Dagg, Murray and Lomu and issued them a warning for breaching the Electoral Act. I suppose the feeling is that the three men are role models with many Twitter followers who could have been influenced by their views.

However, it is now up to the police. Hopefully they can see it for what it was - a simple mistake.