Anderton to lodge election ad complaint

Jim Anderton

Progressive Party leader Jim Anderton is putting together a complaint to the Chief Electoral Office regarding advertising attacking him in the lead up to the election.
Mr Anderton said today leaflets attacking him were distributed in his Wigram electorate and a full page advertisement taken out in Christchurch's community Star newspaper the day before the election.

However, the address of the person commissioning the material - required on all election advertising - appeared to be false.

The stated address was a derelict shop in the Wigram electorate, where no one had lived for years.

There was also a question mark over the name of the person commissioning it.

Although they had claimed to live in Wigram, through the address on the advertising, their name was not on Wigram's electoral roll, Mr Anderton said.

"It was an anonymous and false representation," Mr Anderton told NZPA.

"It's OK to have a crack at someone, that's democracy. But you can't spend thousands of dollars, maybe even tens of thousands of dollars without putting proper identifying details to it.

"We've complained on the basis that this was put out by an anonymous or fictitious person or group, which means it's not an open electoral contest."

Mr Anderton said he had already spoken to election officials, who said they would forward the information to police if in their view there was a breach of the Electoral Act.

He said the timing of the leaflet drop and advertising the day before the election was annoying as it gave him no time to refute the allegations it contained.

He said staff were putting together all the information they held today and hoped to have a formal complaint lodged in the next two days.

Mr Anderton said people had suggested to him Exclusive Brethren church members could be behind the leaflets and advertising, as their style was similar.

But he remained unsure.

During the election campaign Brethren church members mounted an expensive campaign against Labour and the Greens.

The leaflets and advertising carried correct names and addresses, but affiliations with the Brethren church were not mentioned.

The Greens have lodged a formal complaint over some of that material on the grounds it falsely represented their policies.

- NZPA