International News

WELLINGTON, (APP/AFP): New Zealanders will learn
Thursday whether a proposal to ditch Britain’s Union Jack from the national flag has been successful, with opinion polls indicating they will stick with the existing banner.
Prime Minister John Key has been the main advocate for change,
organising a referendum on the issue he describes as a once-in-a-generation chance to update the flag after more than a century.
“It’s fundamentally about taking the Union Jack off and putting the silver fern on,” Key said this week.
He has called the existing flag a relic of British colonial days,
saying the silver fern used by the All Blacks “screams New Zealand” in the same way the maple leaf identifies Canadians.
But after an 18-month process costing NZ$26 million (US$17.5 million)
it appears New Zealanders are overwhelmingly against change.
About three million ballot papers have been distributed in the South
Pacific nation of 4.5 million people for the vote, conducted only by post and which closes at 7.00pm Thursday (0600 GMT).
Preliminary results will be released about 90 minutes later and polling has consistently indicated about two-thirds of the electorate support the status quo.
On one side of the ballot is the existing flag, a dark blue ensign with the Union Jack in the top left corner and four red stars representing the Southern Cross constellation.
On the other is the proposed alternative — a silver fern on a
black-and-blue background, which retains the four stars.
Created by designer Kyle Lockwood, it beat four other proposed flags in a preliminary referendum last December.