The results of New Zealand’s referendums on whether to legalise cannabis and euthanasia will be released this week, with campaigners nervous that the upheavals of 2020 could have tilted the vote to the status quo.
Political experts say that in years of unrest and instability voters tend to veer towards keeping things as they are, which could affect the likelihood of both referendum questions passing.
The questions appeared on the general election ballot papers, but results will not be released by the electoral commission until Friday.
Polling throughout 2020 has shown strong public support of between 60-70% to legalise euthanasia and it also has the backing of the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, as well as the opposition National party leader, Judith Collins.
But Matt Vickers, the widower of lawyer and euthanasia campaigner Lecretia Seales, said he was feeling nervous ahead of the result.
Seales died in 2015 of a brain tumour. Until her death, she and her husband fought to…
