'I haven't fed anybody KFC': Harry Mowbray's Split Your Vote site down after investigation

The campaign by wealthy businessman Harry Mowbray urging National supporters not to give National their party vote has been investigated by the Electoral Commission, leading to Mowbray’s website going offline. 

The website was part of Mowbray’s efforts to encourage voters seeking a re-elected coalition Government to party vote Act or New Zealand First to engineer an overhang in Parliament through National winning more electorate seats than its party vote would entitle it to. Te Pāti Māori is employing a similar strategy by only campaigning for the electorate vote in the Māori seats. 

National leader Christopher Luxon has strongly opposed warnings against giving National the party vote, including enlisting former leader Sir John Key to stress the risk of National recording a poor party vote this election. 

However, its potential coalition partners have at times advocated for people to split their vote, with Mowbray telling the Herald the parties gave approval for ads promoting the strategy to be published. 

A statement from the Electoral Commission said it had “looked into the matter” of Mowbray’s website and “whether it was authorised” but did not comment further. The website appeared to be offline. 

Mowbray, whose children Mat, Nick and Anna founded the toy company Zuru, told the Herald the commission had sent him a letter regarding his $35 website on October 1, although he said it was sent to the wrong address so didn’t receive it until later. 

“Because it’s on a webpage, it’s classified as an ad and so and when I spoke to them, shortly after I got the letter, they said, ‘That’s what the situation is’, and they said, ‘You’ve got to put a value on what it would cost for commercially to produce that webpage’, even though a friend made it for free for me. 

“We’ve transgressed, we’ve pulled the thing down. The whole process was one of trying to make sure that we didn’t breach the Electoral Act. 

“Where it goes to, I have got no idea, but it’ll just be a wait and see, I mean, I haven’t fed anybody Kentucky Fried and got them and filled their vote papers in for them yet.” 

Another issue was the lack of a promoter statement from Act or NZ First approving Mowbray’s advertising. Mowbray told the Herald conversations had been had with the two parties in order to allow ads in the name of former National and Act leader Don Brash, which ran in the Herald this week, discouraging party voting National. 

An Act spokesperson said while the party didn’t organise the ad, it did provide permission when asked in order to comply with electoral requirements. 

“We are encouraging people to party vote Act to re-elect the coalition and help it go further and faster on important issues.” 

Mowbray alleged the complaint to the commission was filed by National, however, he acknowledged he had no evidence aside from how the letter to the commission was written. A National spokesperson said: “The National Party won’t be commenting on this story.” 

More to come ...