Suzanne Williams

When I was asked to send a letter of invitation to candidates to attend a public meeting to be held by Greypower, Whakatāne, I thought "piece of cake!" and popped into the council office to pick up a list of contact details.  I was refused; sent away empty-handed, with a lame excuse of "needing their permission".

What? Last election I was able to pick up a full list of candidates and all their details from the office  -and, in fact, this year the Bay of Plenty Regional Council candidates all have their contacts in their profiles.

I was incredulous; how could this be?  Are not candidates standing out there

in all their naked glory, eminently contactable?  How could the council bureaucracy dictate that none of the voters should be able to contact them? Isn’t that their business, to converse, field enquiries, and discuss policies?  Are we to vote in sublime ignorance?

I spent almost a week using my contacts, the old phone book, and possibly nefarious means, before I was able to get the invitation away.

This example of bureaucratic fascism (or Trumpism), in fact, seems to me, to be actually an obstruction of the democratic process, and should be severely censored. And the committee or manager responsible removed immediately.

Deputy Electoral Officer Chirese Viljoen responds:

We appreciate the writer's commitment to facilitating democratic engagement through Grey Power's public meeting.

To clarify, we are not aware of this specific interaction, and our election staff are stationed in the customer service centre specifically to handle questions, provide information, and manage special voting processes.

Regarding candidate contact information, Whakatāne District Council can only provide contact information with the candidates' permission. As part of the local elections process, candidates are given the option to indicate how their contact information may be shared. This system ensures we respect individual privacy preferences while still supporting democratic engagement.

Candidates can choose from several categories:

• Public: Contact details available to anyone upon request
• Media: Contact details shared only with verified media representatives
• Media and Event Organisers: Contact details shared with both media and legitimate third-party event organisers
• Private: Contact details not publicly released

Event organisers seeking contact details can make requests with a brief explanation of their intended use, which is assessed on a case-by-case basis.

We also note that candidate booklets containing some contact information have been delivered to enrolled voter addresses.

We encourage anyone with questions about the electoral process to contact our customer service centre, where election staff are ready to assist.