Voting may be a universal right, but an Auckland cat owner was surprised when her four-legged companion was sent a Government reminder to enrol.
A letter addressed to Tiana Lyes' cat Chairman Meow was sent by the Electoral Commission asking the feline to sign up to vote.
Ms Lyes tweeted her bewilderment at the notice, asking, "Why did my cat get a letter from the Electoral Commission?"
Why did my cat get a letter from the Electoral Commission? Because our vet sends him mail and we changed address??? pic.twitter.com/CBnYMJPZng
— Tiana (@Tweet_Ti) January 23, 2016
Last night, the tweet had been liked 548 times and retweeted by 477 people.
Ms Lyes assumed the letter was sent to her pet because the vet sends mail directly to Chairman Meow and their address had recently changed.
But the moggy is unable to respond to the invitation to enrol - he is missing.
Ms Lyes tweeted that she hoped the exposure would help to bring Chairman Meow back home.
She said she was surprised at the popularity of her post about the "bizarre" letter.
"Cats just get a good run on social media, I guess, and to see people around the world posting about this weird letter to my cat is pretty funny.
"I've had a lot of good feedback. Some people have even asked to use his name, which is great -- share the love, I say."
She hopes Chairman Meow's newfound fame will help to convince him to return home, although she suspects he may be living up to his political namesake.
"He's probably just rounding up other cats or stockpiling food for the big revolution, I'm sure."
