Then there’s items and matters which are priceless, for their value to us is so important they cannot be evaluated financially.
Democracy is one of those. It means everything to us, particularly in a world where authoritarianism and fascism seems to increasingly be raising their ugly heads. A price cannot be put on how much we need the freedoms we take for granted, and on the importance of having rights and making sure we can hold governments to account through fair elections.
Yet, having said that, a price-tag can be attached to the elections themselves. Collecting votes, counting them and then checking them, to put the task in its simplest terms, are all labour-intensive activities which cost money.
Dunedin finds itself in the unusual position of having to run a by-election so soon after local-body elections last October, the consequence of the sudden death of former mayor and then newly elected city councillor Jules Radich almost a fortnight ago.
Several details of the by-election have been released this week, including a potential cost of about $400,000, an amount which appears to have flummoxed some councillors.
Cr Russell Lund said council chief executive Sandy Graham told councillors she expected it would be around that figure. Electionz.com chief returning officer Warwick Lampp has also indicated that $400,000 would be a likely cost, but the final price would depend on several factors, including the number of candidates, which would determine the size of documents and voting papers which needed printing.
Cr Lund said he was "staggered" by the probable amount, while Cr Benedict Ong said he had seen the figure and understood it to be an estimated projection.
We tend to agree with Cr Lund and others who are concerned about the price.
Given so little time has passed, wouldn’t it make sense to appoint the highest polling unsuccessful candidate? The regulations around by-elections should be changed so councils could declare this candidate successful if another councillor dies or leaves office within, say, six months of an election. It seems baffling that if the vacancy had happened in the last year of the council, then there would have been the option to simply appoint someone or leave empty a seat at the table.
In this case, the highest unsuccessful council hopeful was Bruce Ranga, who was on Cr Andrew Simms’ Future Dunedin ticket. Mr Ranga got 2372 votes but missed out on the last council place to Cr Doug Hall, who received 2576. At one stage, Mr Ranga looked on track for the 14th seat but received a late Sunday night phone call to say he hadn’t made it.
Election fatigue is also a worry. It seems difficult enough these days to encourage people to vote in any kind of election, but holding a by-election so close to the last election could well exacerbate the level of disinterest which needs reversing somehow.
Another detail of the approaching by-election also gives us and others cause for concern — the length of the event.
Mr Lampp said nominations for the vacancy would open on February 2 and close exactly a month later. There would then be another gap, this time of more than a month, before voting opens on April 10, with that closing on May 12.
Ms Graham has explained how running a by-election can be quite a logistical exercise, with its requirements around voter enrolment and preparing of the rolls.
So far there has been a frisson of excitement about the by-election from some of those who missed out in October. Early interest has been shown by Lync Aronson, Richard Knights and Jo Galer, with former councillors Bill Acklin and Andrew Whiley saying they wanted more time to think about it.
They’ve certainly got that. We think this is an unnecessarily long, drawn-out process, given we have just been through an election.
