Police looking into Harry Mowbray's Split Your Vote website

Police are looking into a referral from the Electoral Commission about Harry Mowbray's Split Your Vote website. Detective Senior Sergeant Andrew Compton said police are making enquiries into the referral and can make no further comment at this stage.

The National Party has confirmed it complained to the Electoral Commission about the website. The commission oversees elections in New Zealand.

Voters in New Zealand's mixed-member proportional (MMP) system cast two votes: one for a candidate in their electorate, and one for a party. Splitting your vote means giving those two votes to different parties. Mowbray, a businessman, is the founder of the Split Your Vote campaign, which aims to get New Zealanders to split their vote. RNZ reported that the campaign urged National supporters to give their electorate vote to National and their party vote to ACT or NZ First.

The campaign website is hosted at splityourvote.co.nz and is titled 'Split Your Vote | National, Act and NZ First'. It states it was created to explain the advantages of splitting your vote. RNZ reported that the website was designed to give the centre-right a disproportionate number of seats compared with its party vote, through what is known as overhang. Overhang occurs when a party wins more electorate seats than its share of the party vote would otherwise entitle it to.

Mowbray told RNZ's Midday Report that the Electoral Commission was looking into the website, and that he had taken it offline. He also told Stuff that he was under investigation in connection with the campaign. The New Zealand Herald reported that the website went down after the investigation.

Christopher Luxon declined to comment on the website now that it is before police.