NZ Flag Refendum Fails

The New Zealand Electoral Commission releases the official result of the second of the two referendums for a new flag design conducted 3-24 March (see also News of 15 December 2015 for the first referendum result). The silver fern gained 921,876 votes (43.2 percent) in the run-off against the original design that garnered 1,208,702 votes (56.6 percent). As this is a binding result, the old design is retained (shame, it came right in the middle of the New Zealand’s strong run at the World 2020 Cricket Cup). The informal vote was 0.2 percent (5044 votes) and there were 5,273 invalids. Turnout was 67.8 percent, almost 20 percent higher than in the first vote. Once again, we see a 45/55 vote on constitutional/symbolic change after the Australian republic (1999) and Scottish independence (2014) ballots which shows how hard it is to get these sort of votes over the line when both Yes and No are stuck  in the middle of the spectrum. The New Zealand result was also affected by the challenger being only the second most popular design in the first referendum – it got over the line on preferences – and some disquiet about the design selection method resulting in another design being added after a social media campaign. Another strategic mistake was to allow a second referendum against the old design instead of between the two most preferred new designs. Political leadership needs to be strong and definitive giving the nay-sayers no room to move – either vote for the new or vote informal!