The kakapo snatched victory in a controversial race for the title.
Posted on 11/17/2020 10:20:19 AM PST by SJackson
The kakapo snatched victory in a controversial race for the title.
London (CNN)A lengthy and bitter election campaign that dragged in competing interest groups and was sullied by a voter fraud scandal came to an unlikely end on Monday, when a fat, flightless and nocturnal parrot stunned pundits to claim an upset victory.
The kakapo, officially the world's heaviest parrot, won New Zealand's Bird of the Year vote after a weeks-long campaign that rivaled human political contests in intensity.
It became the first bird to win the contest for a second time -- a feat not explicitly prohibited by the country's constitution -- and snatched victory thanks to the competition's unique and convoluted voting system, having lost the outright popular vote to the Antipodean albatross.
"In a stunning upset the kākāpō swoops in from behind to claw the title of #BirdOfTheYear 2020 away from competition front-runner," Forest & Bird, the environmental group that organizes the annual contest, announced on social media on Monday.
The New Zealand competition frequently turns heated, as politicians, celebrities and online groups endorse their preferred creatures.
The little spotted kiwi was another contender for the prize.
...snip...
A history of vote-fixing
Organizers said more than 55,000 people voted in the competition, which is ostensibly used to highlight the plight of New Zealand's endangered bird species but frequently leads to partially tongue-in-cheek tussles between campaigns and attempts at vote-rigging. In 2018, hundreds of dubious votes were detected for the shag, and the previous year more than 100 fraudulent votes were logged for the white-faced heron.
The kakapo, which prevailed on Monday, is a hefty, loud parrot with a distinctive scent, which was brought from the brink of extinction in the 1990s but remains endangered.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
CNN doing Babylon Bee?
Outdoors/Rural/wildlife/hunting/hiking/backpacking/National Parks/animals list please FR mail me to be on or off . And ping me is you see articles of interest.
Good for the parrot. Wonder if it lives in the basement.
New Zealand discovers 1,500 fraudulent votes ... in an election on birds
Trying to pull an Alinsky.
Falling short.
Birdy McBirdface?
Throw in an Algore quote and it MAY become funny.
Thank you for posting the story w/pics.
Not gonna grace CNN.com.
No, this is true. And looking at the graph of the vote pattern, it looks a lot like the anomalies in the Presidential election...
Have you heard about the bird?
Flightless Biden wins bird of the year in tainted election~!
Well everybody knows so no need to go into that right now...
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