The Māori Electoral Option is the five-yearly opportunity for registered Māori voters to move between the Māori and General rolls. It's an important mechanism for enabling Māori to exercise their democratic right to vote - a right guaranteed by Article 3 of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
In mid-2021, the Crown invited public feedback on whether the timing and frequency of the Māori Electoral Option should change. Ināia Tonu Nei is firmly of the view that changing the timing and frequency is not enough - Māori voters must be able to change rolls whenever they wish to have the same democratic freedom of non-Māori voters, who can vote for any candidate they are eligible to at each election.
There are also broader issues with the Māori Electoral Option than its timing and frequency. It is not well-understood by Māori due to a lack of information and education about it, which has implications for the level of Māori representation in parliament. If all Māori voters used the Māori Electoral Option to change to the Māori roll, for example, the number of Māori seats in parliament would increase significantly.
Our full submission on the Māori Electoral Option can be read via the link above.