'Scent of democracy': nice hand sanitiser ticks box for New Zealand's early voters

As far as polling booth drama goes, Aotearoa's election has so far yielded none - but early voters are quite keen on the fragrant hand sanitiser

They arrive carrying their own pens. They stop for a dollop of pleasantly lemon-scented hand sanitiser as they enter and exit polling places. And they are turning up to vote ahead of election day in record numbers.

As far as polling booth drama goes, New Zealand's election has so far yielded none: just the calm, orderly process of 1.15 million people casting early votes - nearly double the number who had voted by this time in advance of the 2017 election.