Allegations of voter rigging and candidate trolling: it’s New Zealand’s Bird of the Year competition!
You might think New Zealand’s annual Bird of the Year competition is a cosy ornithological affair, but with candidate trolling and alleged vote rigging it sounds more like the US Presidential election.
The New Zealand Herald reports that last week someone from Christchurch lodged more than 100 fraudulent votes for the white-faced heron.
A Black Billed Gull Instagram account is also trolling the other bird “candidates” accusing the white-faced Heron of being a racist and the pigeon an “overweight tree rat”.
Voting closes on Monday, so prepare for the bird equivalent of “you lost, get over it”. But whatever the outcome, as least we were treated to headlines like this.
https://twitter.com/comradewest/status/920608186750476289
They're wannabe mammals too
— jamie d (@jamspangle) October 18, 2017