Waverley pharmacist Peter Barron, a former Southern District Health Board member, this winter lobbied the Dunedin City Council to stay the course ahead of its vote to continue with a single transferable vote system.
And this week, Mr Barron launched a petition on the New Zealand Parliament website asking the House of Representatives to amend section 27 of the Local Electoral Act 2001 by removing the option for councils to choose first-past-the-post as a voting method.
He said he accepted there was a range of views in the community, just as there was a range of views in two national referendums where New Zealanders chose proportional representation over first past the post at a national level.
But only councils were still asked to routinely revisit the issue.
"Do we keep repeating this process until people get fatigued by it, or do we simply say this is the role of central government and central government should be defining the system?" he asked.
"I just think central government has just taken the soft option or been derelict in its duty in allowing the Local Electoral Act to force councils of all descriptions, whether they are regional councils or city councils, to make a choice."
A petition to the House of Representatives does not have a threshold of signatures it needs to reach before a member of Parliament can present it to Parliament.
First Past the Post Working Group chairman Pablo Dennison’s petition, which is circulating Dunedin, needs at least 5% of those who were enrolled to vote at the 2019 Dunedin election, or 4674 voters, to demand a vote on revisiting the issue.
Mr Dennison yesterday said his petition was "still ticking along nicely". Momentum had slowed since Dunedin returned to Level 2 and the working group had collected just under 2000 signatures.
The Otago Regional Council last month voted to continue with first past the post voting and recently advertised a public notice advising electors of their right to demand a poll on the voting system for both the 2022 and 2025 election.
Like the petition for the city council, the demand to change the regional voting system would have to be signed by at least 5% of electors enrolled in the last election.
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Comments
First-past-the post is useful for electing a single position from multiple nominations, but STV is more appropriate for electing multiple positions from multiple nominations.
That states the situation very well and very simply. Which is exactly why so many are disappointed in how STV put Aaron Hawkins in pole postion. For a single position, such as Mayor or Prime Minister for example, First Past the Post is a more accurate count of votes for a particular candidate.