Referendum results: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern voted 'yes' for both cannabis and euthanasia
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern voted “yes” in both the cannabis and euthanasia referendums.
Preliminary results of both referendums, released on Friday, showed 53.1 per cent of people voted against recreational cannabis and a majority supported the End of Life Choice Act.
The cannabis verdict appears unlikely to change at the counting of some 480,000 special votes next week, as 69 per cent of these votes would need to be “yes” to flip the result.
Ardern had refused to say which way she would vote in the lead up to the cannabis referendum, so she could “objectively” see the legislation through if the referendum were to pass.
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As she had voted for the End of Life Choice Bill in the House, she was willing to confirm she would support the assisted dying law at the ballot box.
After the result was released on Friday afternoon, a spokeswoman for the Prime Minister confirmed that Ardern voted yes in both referendums, and will progress any legislation in line with the will of the people following the release of the final results next week.
Green Party drug reform spokeswoman Chloe Swarbrick, speaking to reporters on Friday afternoon, implied that Ardern’s earlier refusal showed she wasn’t willing to stand up for her convictions.
Swarbrick had campaigned for legalisation and on Friday would not concede the referendum was lost until the special votes were counted.
“I’m in the Greens because I have the courage of my convictions,” Swarbrick said, when asked about Ardern not sharing her voting intentions on Friday afternoon.
“I’m really proud of having stuck my neck out there and made the argument for something that I believe in, something that is evidence-based, something that disproportionately criminalises and hurts our most marginalised communities.
“Any politician who wants to talk about those kinds of things, needs to say those things when it matters.”
Swarbrick said Ardern had told the United Nations in 2018 that her Labour-led Government was committed to drug harm reduction instead of a criminal justice approach.
At the time, Ardern had declined to sign a Global Call to Action on the World Drug Problem being pushed by United States President Donald Trump.
Justice Minister Andrew Little, speaking after the results were announced, said the Government would no longer pursue legalisation or decriminalisation of the drug.
It was a “pretty convincing” result for both referendums, he said, that “means that it is highly unlikely that those results will be overturned”.
“The electorate has spoken, they are uncomfortable with greater legalisation, and I would interpret it as [also] decriminalisation of recreational cannabis.”
He said he “doubted” whether Ardern telling the public her vote earlier would have swayed the referendum result.
“It's been clear from the commencement of this Government ... that we were going to have a referendum on the legalisation of cannabis ... This was for the electorate to decide.”
During a heated election debate in September, Ardern acknowledged she had tried the drug, though a long time ago.
The official final vote numbers for the election, including an estimate 480,000 special votes, and referendums will be released on Friday, November 6.