Petitioners opposing a decision to guarantee Māori seats on the Palmerston North City Council have succeeded in forcing a city-wide poll on the matter.
Organiser Don Esslemont, whose campaign has been supported by Hobson's Pledge, presented nearly 4000 signatures to the city council on Wednesday afternoon.
Only 2727 signatures needed to be verified as those of registered voters to require a referendum.
Council officials confirmed about 7.20pm on Wednesday the threshold has been reached and the poll would be held on Saturday, May 19, by postal vote and using the first-past-the-post system. The result will be binding.
So, we're going to have vote where the majority will vote on the democratic rights of a minority. Hopefully it'll go the right way, but no matter what the outcome, the situation is not acceptable. The decision of how they want to be represented is really one for Māori, and its not really the place of Pakeha to try and veto that. Such polls should be restricted to those on the Māori roll, and I'd love to see a Member's Bill to require that.