A waddling Otago icon is being robbed of stardom by the STV voting system.
Forest & Bird released half-way results for its Bird of the Year competition yesterday.
Former Dunedin mayor Dave Cull and the Otago University Students' Association are among the heavyweights endorsing the hoiho (yellow-eyed penguin).
Forest & Bird spokeswoman Megan Hubscher said as of Sunday, the hoiho had the highest number of "first preference'' votes with 1441.
However, this year the competition transferred to the STV system for the first time, in which voters rank candidates.
This put kakapo first with 3099 votes and hoiho second on 2846.
Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust general manager Sue Murray said it was encouraging people to vote for the bird, but was not directly involved in the campaign.
The penguin was "100%'' being robbed by the STV system, she said.
"We can't let that happen, so we have to keep everyone voting.''
The competition "absolutely'' raised awareness for native species like the hoiho.
"We've been doing our bit to encourage people to vote.''
The Department of Conservation last week released initial counts for the penguin nests this season, which showed "severe declines'' in some areas.
This comes after steeper than expected drops in nest numbers in the last few years.
Ms Hubscher said no-one wanted the decision to be made by a coin toss, as in recent human elections.
"So it's vital to make democracy count by spreading the word, and getting your friends and family voting.''
Voting closes at 5pm on Sunday.
