Expats begin voting

3 NEWS: While the big day for voting in New Zealand election is November 8th, overseas it has already begun.

Expat Kiwis are already casting their votes and with an estimated half a million people eligible to vote, the expats could be a deciding factor in marginal seats.

"It's really about exercising your right to vote as a New Zealander," Anna Groot from Kiwi Expats Abroad says. "If you have that right then I think it's really important that living in a democracy, that you exercise that right so that every vote goes towards the final solution."

A good party can be more important than good politics to many expat Kiwis - especially in London. However, with an increasing number of Kiwis choosing to remain offshore, the Every Vote Counts campaign is rallying them to reconnect with home.

A recent study in Britain found that only 22 percent of Kiwis living abroad planned to return home permanently, which raises questions about whether long-term expats should be eligible to vote.

Alan Gamelan, a Kiwi academic at Oxford University who carried out the survey, says historically expat kiwis only vote if they feel they have a stake in New Zealand.

"Some of the things that could be defined as holding a stake are planning to return one day, being brought up in New Zealand and identifying deeply with the country, and having family and extended family," Mr Gamelan says. "Those are the kind of things that could be defined as having a stake in New Zealand society."

Kateia Burrows has lived in London for nine years. She voted in the last election and says that she will vote next month too.

"I want to feel connected, I want to contribute to decisions being made about my country," she says. "But over that I feel it's really important as a Maori woman to vote and have a say about New Zealand and what's important to its future."

Only 28,000 ex-pats voted in the last election, despite an estimated 500,000 being eligible. The Every Vote Counts campaign hopes thousands more will vote this year, ensuring that expats help shape the future of New Zealand.