The 2020 general election has been delayed by four weeks until October 17.

Factors including the participation of voters, the fairness of the election, and the need for the election to be held in a timely way were considered in the decision. Yesterday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern reached out to all parties with seats in parliament to seek their view. “Complete consensus is unlikely,” she said.

However, she said there were a number of areas that were agreed to by all parties. 

“Ultimately, the 17th of October, in approximately nine weeks’ time, provides sufficient time for parties to plan for the range of circumstances we could be campaigning under, for the electoral commission to prepare and for voters to be sure of a safe, accessible and credible election,” Ardern said.

Ardern said that once parliament dissolves, the Electoral Commission has the power to move the date. If there were another Covid-19 outbreak and it was truly unsafe to vote, this would be considered, she said. According to Ardern, the Electoral Commission is anticipating 60 per cent of the voting population will advance vote. “It is unusual to hold advance voting over a school holiday period,” she said. “My hope is that will create the opportunity for potentially additional venues, venues with much larger capacity.”

New election timetable:

13 September: Writ day – the Governor-General issues the writ for the election to be held.

17 September noon: The deadline for parties to submit bulk candidate nominations and party lists to the Electoral Commission.

18 September noon: The deadline for individual electorate candidate nominations to returning officers.

30 September: Overseas voting begins.

3 October: Advance voting begins.

17 October: Election day – preliminary results released progressively from 7.00 p.m.

30 October: Preliminary referendum results released.

6 November: Official Results declared for the General Election and referendums.

The Electoral Commission has always planned to run the election as if New Zealand is at Alert Level 2. Health measures that will be in place that include contact tracing, hand sanitiser and physical distancing in voting places, and providing protective gear for staff if needed. Planning is also underway to have more voting places and longer voting times to reduce queues.