Narrow win for silver fern flag

John Key with the Kyle Lockwood-designed flag. Photo by ODT.
John Key with the Kyle Lockwood-designed flag. Photo by ODT.
New Zealanders have, by a tight margin, got behind the black, white and blue Kyle Lockwood-designed silver fern flag over the similar red, white and blue flag by the same designer.

The Red Peak flag was third in the preliminary results, announced last night, followed by the black and white silver fern and the koru.

The winning flag received 50.53% of the vote and the second 49.47%.

The blue and black flag won in the fourth round of voting.

In the first round, Mr Lockwood's red-coloured flag received the most votes, but it failed to get a clear 50% majority. That meant the Andrew Fyfe-designed Koru was eliminated from voting as the lowest-ranked flag.

The Silver Fern (Black and White) was the second flag to be eliminated, followed by Red Peak.

The preferred flag could change when the final result is announced on Tuesday. The alternative flag design placings, from one to five, match Prime Minister John Key's rankings.

The vote included what appeared to be a significant protest element, with 9.7% of votes informal.

The Electoral Commission said last night 1,527,042 votes were received, including 148,022 informal votes (9.7%) and 2476 invalid votes (0.16%).

The turnout was 48.16% of registered voters.

Flag consideration panel member and former Dunedin mayor Peter Chin said he hoped the percentage of New Zealanders who voted would top 50% by Tuesday.

That percentage "fits in pretty well with local body elections and other elections''.

"In the best of worlds, one would always hope it would be 100%, but that's clearly not ever going to happen on any kind of election.''

Regarding the informal votes, people "have clearly voted and either deliberately, or not deliberately, not voted in the correct way to identify their preferences'', Mr Chin said.

"Those who have done it deliberately are entitled to exercise their judgement in the way they have.''

He stressed the result was preliminary and could change.

"It could well flip the other way. It is close.''

In March, the country will choose between the winning flag from this first referendum and the present New Zealand flag.

University of Otago politics lecturer Dr Bryce Edwards said referendum results tended not to shift much, so he expected the black, white and blue flag to stay in front.

Dr Edwards said the vote was not a high turnout.

"There are referendums which have been higher, and there have been referendums that have been lower.

"It's not an embarrassment for the Government.''

There was a problem with referendums that got less than 50%, as while it was an arbitrary figure, "you need a majority in a referendum to make it seem valid or legitimate''.

The fact it was 48% meant there was not a "moral mandate to push forward''.

That was not scientific, but meant the result had "not had a heavy stamp of endorsement from the public''.

The number of informal votes was "extremely high'', he said.

"It's quite a remarkable outcome to have such a huge protest vote in a referendum like this.''

Dr Edwards said 1% would be a more normal percentage of informal votes in a referendum, and in a general election, it would be a fraction of that.

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