It would be easy to attribute all sorts of dastardly motives to Kelly Chal, the United Future list candidate who has lost her seat in Parliament because she is not a New Zealand citizen: To suggest, for example, that Ms Chal must surely have known the eligibility requirements for MPs; and that, aided by the laxity of United Future officials, she conspired to find a way around them.
The circumstances, however, lend no weight to suggestions of scheming and deception. Ms Chal seems, rather, to be guilty of nothing more than her own ignorance. Asked on her candidate nomination form whether she was a New Zealand citizen, she wrote: "Permanent resident since 1994".
This was a convoluted response to a simple question but not one that sought to circumvent the issue. Presumably, she believed that residency made her eligible to stand for Parliament. No one had, after all, told her otherwise.
If this all looks slapdash and reflects badly on United Future, it is important to recall the party's former obscurity. Only in the final 10 days of the election campaign did it seem feasible that the likes of Ms Chal could become MPs.
So it is likely that United Future took rather less care tutoring and vetting its candidates than, say, Labour or National. Being tripped up by the unforeseen is often a price of such neglect. Thus it was that the unfortunate Kelly Chal fell flat on her face.
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<i>Editorial:</i> Kelly Chal's genuine mistake
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