The allegation of falsified enrolment of non-residents in South Auckland’s Papatoetoe area has cast a dark shadow of shame over the Indian community, since the perpetrators were reportedly candidates of Indian origin. The subsequent police investigation, arrests and the ongoing case against them have all placed Indians in a defenceless state.
We are not at liberty at this stage to deliberate on a case that is before the Court of Law but graft in any form is an anathema in this country and with the voting public largely unsympathetic towards erring politicians, dishonest behaviour such as the one seen in South Auckland would have no takers.
There is hardly a cast-iron protection: anyone registering fake applicants for postal votes could easily supply fake signatures too. The onus is on the Electoral Commission to sift the genuine from the bogus and deliver the best result possible.
Amidst all this fiasco, someone suggested to us that the famous belief of the late Russian leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, “Trust is good, but control is better” should become the norm.
It may be time to reimpose tighter restrictions on postal voters.
