Anti-Labour website may break new rules

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A website that tells people to not vote for Labour in the next election may be breaching the Electoral Finance Act.

The Act came into force on Tuesday and changes the rules around election campaigns.

Andrew Moore, the creator of the dontvotelabour.org.nz website, said he created the website to educate the public about the reasons why they should not vote for Labour.

He said he was unsure whether the website breached the Electoral Finance Act.

The main issue could be that his name and address had not been included on the website, he said.

Mr Moore had not heard from the Electoral Commission.

He said he had a brain wave on December 30 to set up the website – the next day it was on the internet.

He said the idea for the website was "quite possibly prompted" by the Electoral Finance Act taking effect this week.

Mr Moore said the website had no religious or political affiliation.

"I am not going to say support any particular party, but I will say don't vote for Labour, New Zealand First, Greens or United Future, because of their terrible attitude toward what the public want in New Zealand."

The funds for the website are coming from Mr Moore.

Mr Moore helped organise the Christchurch march against the "anti-smacking" bill in 2006 and is also involved in the Section59 blog, which opposes the "anti-smacking" legislation.

Electoral Commission communications manager Peter Northcote said if somebody was making a statement encouraging people to vote for or against a party or candidate then they needed to put their name and address on the statement if it is a published advertisement in terms of the Electoral Finance Act.

He said the commission would see if that was the case in terms of the website.

- NZPA