UnitedFuture leader Peter Dunne has welcomed the Electoral Commission’s decision to re-register UnitedFuture as a political party.
The Commission advised today that it has agreed to restore UnitedFuture to the register of political parties from August 15th.
"I am very pleased that this decision has finally been reached, and will now pursue with Mr Speaker the restoration of UnitedFuture’s recognition as a recognised Parliamentary party.
"While I am pleased that this situation has been resolved, I remain unhappy with the cumbersome process the Electoral Commission felt obliged to follow.
"I am therefore drafting a Member’s Bill to provide for the acceptance of online party memberships as legitimate for party registration purposes, and for a separate re-registration procedure for established registered parties that deregister, and seek fresh registration within a specified period of time.
"My Bill will also require the Electoral Commission to formally audit the membership of all registered parties once every three years, unlike the current situation where the membership of registered parties is never checked by the Commission," he says.
Mr Dunne expressed his thanks to UnitedFuture’s board, volunteers and general membership for their efforts in recent weeks.
"It is a phenomenal achievement to have completed the registration process in just under ten weeks, and it is a great tribute to their hard work and efforts," he says.
Oddly, getting deregistered might prove to be the best thing that ever happened to United Future. It galvanised Peter Dunne and his party officials into action, and the party is reported to now have significantly more members than required to maintain registration. Using the old maxim that any publicity is good publicity, the party has certainly been talked about!
Whether that will be enough for Peter Dunne to retain his Ohariu seat, and possibly even bring another MP in on his coat-tails remains to be seen, but we wouldn't bet the house on it.
It hasn't been a red-letter year for Peter Dunne. And the question has to be asked; does United have any Future?
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