Voter fraud in Bird of the Year contest in New Zealand? Apparently, it happened

The puteketeke, a bird that pukes, won New Zealand’s famous Bird of the Century title after American-British comedian John Oliver’s controversial involvement. Puteketeke won The Bird of the Year Competition, now better known as the Bird of the Century competition, which is an annual event where people vote for their favourite New Zealand bird. The competition was started to celebrate environmental organisation Forest and Bird’s centenary.

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John Oliver’s “aggressive” campaign for puteketeke sparked a global frenzy, as he asked people to vote for this bird on Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show and promoted it with signage in capitals. He exploited a loophole in the voting system of the competition as the campaign manager.

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John Oliver’s interest in bizarre yet unique bird

As per Nicola Toki from Forest and Bird, puteketeke started as “an outsider”, but because of its unique look and bizarre mating style, it became a favourite and “was catapulted to the top spot”.

Its bizarre yet unique quality won over John Oliver so much that he spoke about it on his HBO show Last Week Tonight.

"They are weird puking birds with colourful mullets. What's not to love here?" Oliver said on his show last week when launching the lake bird's campaign.

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The comedian placed billboards in countries including New Zealand, Japan, France and the UK - dubbing the bird "Lord of the Wings" in reference to the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy filmed in New Zealand.

‘American interference’ in bird election

Many people of New Zealand and campaigners of other birds considered Oliver’s aggressive support for the bird as another ‘American interference’, this time in a bird election.

Supporters of the kakariki karaka - a green parakeet - put up billboards reading: "Dear John, don't disrupt the pecking order". Others begged people to vote for the kiwi, which Mr Oliver had likened to "a rat carrying a toothpick".

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In response, John Oliver jokingly said, "This is what democracy is all about - America interfering in foreign elections."

Voter fraud over a bird

The intensity of the competition was so high that some people even committed voter fraud to make their favourite bird win or oust the other ones from the race.

One supporter of the eastern rockhopper penguin - which Mr Oliver dismissed as a "hipster penguin" - cast 40,000 votes for the bird.

Another person, from Pennsylvania in the US, cast 3,403 votes - with one arriving every three seconds. Neither were included in the final count.

(With inputs from agencies)