"I'm pretty sure people have made up their minds before going into the polling booth."
Rugby great Jonah Lomu also flouted electoral rules, tweeting to 47,700 people: "@johnkeypm All the best for Tonight. Get in there everyone your last chance to vote and grow NZ Go "National"#vote2014nz #vote2014nz." Sky TV host Stephen McIvor replied: "now that's what we're talking about big man #respect #nationalnation.
Lomu's wife Nadine said the post, retweeted by several people, had not been removed despite questions over whether he was breaking the law.
Electoral Commission spokeswoman Stasi Turnbull said a number of complaints had been lodged over breaches.
"We have had a number of complaints but it will take some time for us to investigate whether they are valid or not."
The commission would refer any serious breaches to the police, she said. The penalty was a fine of up to $20,000.
She said staff were not actively trawling social media, looking for breaches.
"That would be a very large job. But if we get a complaint, we look into it and ask people to remove any content that's identified."
By early afternoon, the commission had asked a handful of people to remove things, she said. "That's ongoing."
She said it was hard to say whether particular posts were breaches without examining each one.
"We wouldn't make a definitive judgment that this is bad or this is good without seeing the context.
"Someone with 50,000 followers is different to someone with nine."
Members of the public were allowed to declare they had voted and encourage others to do so but any attempt to influence voters or discuss candidates and parties was a breach of the Electoral Act.
