24 July, 207.
Ethnic Community Engagement: General Elections
Auckland Regional Migrant Services Trust (ARMS) is ensuring that local ethnic communities are ‘election-ready’ and will
have their voices heard by the key political parties prior to the upcoming General Election.
ARMS Chief Executive Officer, Rochana Sheward believes that active community engagement is needed to create awareness
around the importance of civic participation and on understanding the electoral process amongst newcomer, migrant and
resettled communities.
“ARMS is pleased to partner with the NZ Electoral Commission to engage with Auckland’s ethnic communities about the
importance of exercising their right and responsibility to vote.”
“Through a series of community workshops, ARMS is informing our culturally diverse communities about the democratic
right to vote, what this involves, and how their members can have a say as to who should govern our country,” said Ms
Sheward.
ARMS will lead two Training of Trainers sessions for Community Champions, who will, after the training, assist their
communities with enrolments, education and voter motivation.
Other General Election workshops will be run with Auckland’s African, Indian, Pacific, Middle Eastern, South East Asian,
Filipino and Russian communities, with language support where necessary to support their understanding of the voting
process including how to enrol, how they can cast a special vote if they wish, and how the MMP system works.
Unbiased information will be presented about the policies of each political party as they relate to key concerns of
different ethnic communities. Through the community election workshops, ARMS will also be gathering up the views of
ethnic communities about their most pressing issues. These will be presented at a multi-ethnic forum where
representatives of all the major parties will have the chance to say what their party can offer Auckland’s ethnically
diverse communities. Representatives from each community will be invited to participate in this forum to get a sense of
which party would be best to represent their concerns.
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