Social Democrats referred to police over late returns

NEW ZEALAND HERALD: The Electoral Commission is to go to police over a late 2007 donation return by the Democrats for Social Credit party.

The Commission said the party had no reasonable excuse for filing their return on May 19 - after the April 30 deadline.

The Democrats for Social Credit received 1079 party votes at the election or 0.05 per cent of the total vote.

The party's secretary told the commission he had trouble getting information from the treasurer and blamed the auditor for the delay.

The auditor told the commission the information was received from the party on May 16 and sent to the commission on May 16.

The commission's chief executive said the party had given no reasonable excuse and the matter would be referred to the police.

New Zealand First also filed its donation returns late, but managed to convince the commission it had a reasonable excuse.

NZ First is now facing a potential police inquiry as the late return recorded no donations.

The trustee of the Spencer Trust has said it funnelled $80,000 in donations through to NZ First which should have been declared.

The party's secretary says she signed the returns believing them to be true.