Petition of Roy Reid under the Citizens Initiated Referenda Act 1993 asking if an indicative referendum should be held on the following question:

“Do you support the Government selling up to 49% of Meridian Energy, Mighty River Power, Genesis Power, Solid Energy and Air New Zealand?”

The Clerk of the House of Representatives Mary Harris has today certified that this petition has lapsed because she cannot be satisfied that the threshold required by the Citizens Initiated Referenda Act 1993 has been met. The Clerk has been assisted in reaching this conclusion by advice from the Government Statistician.

Before a citizens initiated referendum can be held, the Act requires the Clerk to be satisfied that the petition has been signed by 10% of eligible electors as at the date the petition was delivered to her. The petition was delivered on 12 March 2013.

Advice received from the Electoral Commission indicated that 308,753 valid signatures were required for the petition to meet the threshold required by the Act.

Upon receiving the petition the Office of the Clerk undertook a counting and sampling process. Once the signatures had been counted, a sample of signatures was taken using a methodology provided by the Government Statistician. The sample was then checked by the Electoral Commission to identify how many signatories were eligible electors as at 12 March. Some signatories could not be found on the electoral roll, either because they were not enrolled or because the identifying information they supplied was insufficient or illegible. Some duplicate signatures were also identified.

The results from checking the sample were then analysed by the Government Statistician, who is confident that the petition has not succeeded in meeting the threshold. It is short by approximately 16,500 valid signatures.

The Act provides that if the promoter wishes to resubmit the petition he has two months from today to collect additional signatures.

ENDS

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