‘Use your power’: Pacific voters urged to have their say as advance voting opens

Advance voting has opened nationwide with over 400 booths placed in schools, marae, shopping malls, transport hubs and community halls.

Shoppers can even add voting to their shopping list this year with voting places at eleven Warehouse stores and nine Pak’nSave and New World supermarkets.

Pacific youth advocates are encouraging young voters to cast their votes.

“This is the easiest thing you can do to make systemic change,” says Whau Pasifika director Ina Patisolo.

“Anyone who is brown, with a disability, young, feeling disenfranchised, there’s nothing easier that you can do than do than two ticks; one for your electorate and one for the party that has that vision that looks after you and your children.

“This is as powerful as we can be, so use your power.”

PMN’s political columnist Justin Latif told Levi Matautia-Morgan on 531pi's Pacific Mornings early voting has been seen as a key driver in raising turnout, with more than two thirds of votes cast before election day in 2020.

“More and more people work on the weekends. Elections used to just be decided by those who had those nice, stable lives where they had Saturdays free and, by doing the advance voting, it does allow more people to fit voting around their busy schedules.”

In the South Island, Cook Islands community leader Lisa Tou-Mcnaughton says Pacific votes are crucial.

“There’s very few times in your life when you have the same power as the richest person in the world, and voting is one of those times. Your vote is equal to anyone else’s vote.”

Speaking to Susnation Seta on PMN Cook Islands, Tou-Mcnaughton encourages smaller communities to make their voices heard.

“In the last election in the United States, it was the minorities that made the difference with regards to the change of government.

“The Pasifika voice is important, our world view is important. We most often straddle two worlds, papa’a world and a Pasifika world, so we have quite a unique lens on things.”

Click here to find a voting booth near you.