New Zealanders yesterday began voting to select a potential new flag, as the South Pacific nation considers dropping Britain’s Union Jack from its national banner.
Voters are being asked to choose between five flag options in a postal referendum that is to continue until Dec. 11.
The winning design is to go head-to-head with the existing flag in a second referendum to be held in March next year.
Photo: EPA
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has made the flag reform issue a pet project since his government won a third term late last year.
He sees the current flag, which has the Union Jack in the top-left corner, as an anachronism, arguing that the nation needs a standard “that screams New Zealand.”
Key has also expressed frustration that the flag — which features four red stars representing the Southern Cross constellation on a dark-blue background — is frequently confused with Australia’s.
Four of the five designs in the first referendum feature the fern, New Zealand’s unofficial national emblem.
The fifth, dubbed “Red Peak,” consists of red, black and blue triangles with a white chevron. It was a late addition to the line-up after a social media campaign for its inclusion.
An opinion poll last month predicted a design featuring a white fern on a red and blue background would win the first referendum.
Separate polling suggests the existing flag is likely to decisively win the second referendum in March with about 65 percent of the vote.
Elections NZ said about 3 million ballot papers were being sent out in the nation of 4.5 million people.
New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Bill English urged people to select a flag they felt represented “New Zealand’s proud, pioneering past and its exciting, ambitious future.”
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he said. “Very few governments around the world have ever asked their citizens for their views on the design of their national flags.”
The present flag was adopted in the early 1900s amid patriotic fervor in New Zealand over sending soldiers to fight in the Anglo-Boer War in South Africa.
Once part of the British Empire, New Zealand is now independent, although Queen Elizabeth II remains the head of state.
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