pn577. Referenda results, euthanasia and cannabis: where now?

 

Preliminary results announced this afternoon show 65.1% voted in favour of end-of-life legislation, 33.8% voted against, a total of 98.9%. Conversely, some 53.1% voted against making cannabis use legal and 46.1% were in favour, a total of 99.3%.  Some 1.1% and 0.8% of votes were presumably invalid.  Special votes results, thought to account for about 17% of eligible voters, will not be known until 6 November but it is unlikely today's results will be changed.  

The only remaining question is 

can the Labour government totally ignore the wishes of nearly one-half of voters who voted "yes" to cannabis reform,  not with its legalisation but with its de-criminalisation, which many who voted "no" are likely to have supported. -- ACW

Curia research claims 55% of Labour supporters voted "yes" but Jacinda played dumb until after the election. 

John Trezise posted this on Facebook (my emphasis): 

'It is absolutely fair for advocates of cannabis legalisation to be furious with Jacinda Ardern, who revealed in the minutes after Friday’s result that she voted in support of legalisation, after months of keeping her vote secret. The vote was close enough, and Ardern is popular enough, that her intervention could have been decisive, even if it was just her staring down a Facebook Live lens and explaining the safeguards in the bill. A Curia post-election poll suggests just 55 per cent of Labour voters backed “yes” – many more would have done so with a clear position on Ardern’s part.'