What should we make of this?

We think it's great that the police are investigating allegations of attempted electoral fraud in South Auckland. Such behaviour is repugnant to us, and to our system of democracy.

But this caught our eye when we read the Herald story this morning (our emphasis added):

Four of the nine people standing for four seats in the Otara-Papatoetoe subdivision are Indian - Labour candidates Daljit Singh and Sukhdev Singh Hundal, and Citizens and Ratepayers candidates Avtar Hans and Narinder Kumar Singla.

Mr Gutry said candidates and campaign staff would be contacted as part of the inquiry. Yesterday, none of the four Indian candidates said they had been contacted by the police.

Daljit Singh yesterday said he knew of people who believed that because there was one Super City, they could vote anywhere.

People who may have unintentionally enrolled were being told to correct the matter with the Electoral Enrolment Centre, he said.

Previously, Daljit Singh told the Weekend Herald that Labour was not asking people to falsely enrol in the area to vote for him and linked rumours of this to a Citizens and Ratepayers smear campaign.

Sukhdev Singh Hundal yesterday said: "I haven't any idea about those irregularities ... I'm a law-abiding person."

Avtar Hans and Narinder Kumar Singla have denied any smear campaign against the Labour candidates.

Mr Singla said he stood for transparency and honesty and condemned any voting irregularities.

Now we have no wish to cast aspersions on any candidate, but we do find it interesting that Daljit Singh seems to have so much to say on this issue, and that Mr Singh has attempted to suggest that people may have "unintentionally" enrolled. It will be interesting to see what conclusions the investigating officers draw.

If there is ANY suggestion of ANY involvement or collusion by ANY candidate, regardless of which side of the politcal divide they come from, that candidate or candidates should be immediately disqualified. Attempts to pervert the electoral system have no place in New Zealand.

UPDATE: Especially for our commenter this morning who just LOVES our originality, here's the video from 3News last night which makes interesting viewing...