Harry Mowbray's 'Split Your Vote' website probed by Electoral Commission

Harry Mowbray will be live on Midday Report after about 12.05pm. Listen live on the player above, the RNZ app or your local RNZ frequencyThe Electoral Commission says it's looking into the 'Split Your Vote' website created by entrepreneur Harry Mowbray.The website, which is no longer online, encouraged voters who want a centre-right government to give their party vote to ACT or New Zealand First.Mowbray has alleged the complaint came from the National Party - asked by RNZ to confirm or deny the allegation a spokesperson for the party said it wouldn't be "commenting on this story".The Electoral Commission told RNZ it was investigating the "advertising" and whether it was "authorised", and it wouldn't be appropriate to comment further at this stage.Party messaging must come with an authentication statement, for transparency reasons.Earlier this week Mowbray said he'd been pushing the message that a centre right government could "best be achieved" by vote splitting, "supporting the local National MP or candidate with their electorate vote but giving their Party vote to NZFirst or ACT as coalition partners"."That gives their party vote some effect while giving the centre right coalition a better chance of winning."Mowbray will be speaking to the complaint and his strategy on Midday Report with Guyon Espiner.The complaint comes as the overhang strategy gains momentum, and National has responded in turn, with a video from former Prime Minister Sir John Key saying not to put the election to chance."It's a really close election," Luxon said on Friday."It's going to come down to the wire. As I said yesterday, there'll be one or two points in it all."He said if voters want National, they have to vote for it."In an MMP system, you party vote for it."This is not the first time National has called on Sir John Key's services to deliver a message to voters during an election campaign.In 2023, Key released a video ten days before the election, urging Kiwis to give their party vote to National to avoid waking up in "limbo land" without a clear result.He argued then that National needed enough votes to govern without "lots of moving parts", but conspicuously avoided mentioning NZ First or its leader Winston Peters by name.Key also warned prolonged negotiations would delay action on the cost of living.The intervention was ultimately unsuccessful in its bid to prevent National being reliant on NZ First to form a government.The country's first three-way coalition was formed about 40 days after the 2023 election, following lengthy talks.Act candidate Paul Henry was asked about the Electoral Commission complaint and the implication from Mowbray it had come from the National Party."I would be surprised if he hadn't expected that something like this would happen," Henry responded.Asked what he made of the vote splitting strategy gaining momentum, Henry said, "it's maths isn't it?""Anyone that really understands mathematics will know that most of what they're saying is correct based on assumptions."So actually, what they're saying is completely correct, but it's based on assumptions. So then you come back to: Are the assumptions correct?"