Labour MP Annette King opens up on retirement plans

Annette King says observing democracy in action is an amazing thing to do. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Labour MP Annette King will soon leave Parliament having run in 10 elections - but will be involved in plenty more in her retirement.

King recently put her experience to use as an observer of elections in Cambodia, and will soon carry out the same job in Papua New Guinea (PNG). It's a role the Rongotai MP is keen to continue with once she leaves Parliament ahead of September's election.

"I think it would be a fantastic thing to do, to watch democracy in action. You are not there to tell them what to do, you are there to observe and take note, and see how you could improve their system from the observation," King told the Herald.

"The next one is PNG to Bougainville, I think that will be different again because it is one where I'll be accompanied by New Zealand Police, so obviously it's not quite as stable as Cambodia."

Annette King (left) and National MP Jo Goodhew with a Cambodian voter. Photo / Supplied

King and National MP Jo Goodhew were in Cambodia for the election last Sunday, after which they travelled to Thailand. Opposition parties there have asked New Zealand to send observers for next year's election.

New Zealand was one of about 24 countries to send observers to Cambodia for the commune council elections. King received a check-list of what to go through and record, from before voting opened at 7am to after the voting.

Security and efforts to assure the public the vote was correct went above and beyond the cardboard voting boxes used in New Zealand, King said.

"The ballot box is made of tin, all of them had 'Donated by Japan' on them, they had locks on them, they showed you the empty ballot box before the day started, they then locked the box. Before they opened it they put two more locks on it, they put paper stickers over the latches and then a lid on it, while they discussed how they were going to do their counting.

"There was nothing to hide. Every ballot paper was held up and the result read out, so you could see it. The public were hanging through the windows, they were taking photographs of the results as they came in, results were being put up on a board."

Overall voter turnout was in the 80s and there were early morning lines at the Phnom Penh voting station King observed.

New Zealand was one of around 24 countries to send observers to Cambodia. Photo / Supplied by Annette King

"There were just thousands of people. You couldn't move for the queues of people. What it showed to me was the real desire for the public to be involved in a democratic election," King said.

"The most amazing thing was they had to dip their finger in indelible ink that wouldn't come off for three days, to show that they had voted."

The opposition captured about 30 per cent of the positions in last week's vote, with voting mostly carried out without incident.

There is a Cambodian expat community in King's Wellington electorate, and she has previously met with Cambodian opposition leaders. They asked New Zealand to send observers.

"New Zealand has done this for years, and not just developing countries," King said. "For example, [National MP] Maurice Williamson was in the UK for their election, well, that would have been an interesting one. It's a role that we have played, and I think it's a really important one."