By Xinhua,
Wellington : New Zealand’s Chief Electoral Office will now swing in to full gear to make voting as easy and accessible as possible for voters for the 2008 general election on Nov. 8.
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark announced on Friday that she set general election date on Nov. 8.
The 2008 general election will be run under new electorate boundaries — with one additional electorate Botany in Auckland and name or boundary changes to most other electorates.
“Our Returning Officers in each electorate will now move to confirm the locations of about 2,700 polling places and 270 advance voting places across the country and recruit and train around 16,000 people to work on Election Day,” said Chief Electoral Officer Robert Peden on Friday.
“Our focus is on running an accurate and smooth election, and making voting easy and accessible,” he added.
Polling places will be open from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m. local time on Election Day, Nov. 8.
Anyone who can’t get to a polling place on Election Day or who is overseas will be able to vote in advance. Advance voting opens from Oct. 22.