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Chief Electoral Officer: VFC claims are “factually incorrect, and misleading”
By Steven | November 18, 2011
I see I’m not alone in my concern that the anti-MMP group Vote For Change’s campaign is misleading when it emphasises that the alternative voting systems “could work with 99 MPs”.
Robert Peden, the Chief Electoral Office, has seen the need to put out a press release about it:
“The Vote for Change organisation is free to campaign for a reduction in the number of MPs, but to promote that view in a way that a implies a link between a vote for change, and a change in the number of MPs is factually incorrect, and misleading.”
The release explains, as I did in my complaint, that:
The Electoral Referendum Act 2010 specifies that each voting system to be considered in the referendum will have 120 MPs.
You might recall that this wasn’t something that caused the ASA to find VFC’s advertising misleading.
The Chief Electoral Commissioner goes one further than me. He points out that it’s also wrong for VFC to state that “MMP requires 120 MPs”:
Mr Peden also points out that if the debate was about the size of the House of Representatives, rather than the voting system, then it is factually incorrect to say that MMP requires 120 MPs. MMP could operate effectively with 99 MPs.
“The Commission’s view,” Mr Peden adds, “is supported by independent expert opinion.”
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