NEW ZEALAND voters have chosen a design with a silver fern on a black and blue background with four red stars representing the Southern Cross as a possible new national flag, according to the final results of a recent referendum released yesterday by the New Zealand Government.

    The chosen design will compete against the current flag in the second of two national referenda on changing the country’s national flag, scheduled next March.

    In the first referendum held for three weeks from Nov. 10, voters picked their choice from five designs that had been selected from about 10,000 entries submitted from the public.

    The winner closely defeated an almost identical design with some different colors — the silver fern on a red and slightly darker blue background with the four red stars.

    Many supporters of a flag change favor the symbol of the silver fern, a plant endemic to New Zealand and commonly associated with the country both domestically and overseas.

    The silver fern is already used for various official purposes including on the New Zealand coat of arms and on the country’s one dollar coin.

    Prime Minister John Key, who considers the current national flag as representing New Zealand’s British colonial past and not its modern identity, has called for a change.

    But a recent poll showed that around 60 percent of people wanted to keep the existing flag. The current flag features Britain’s Union Jack on the upper-left quarter and red Southern Cross stars on the right.  (SD-Agencies)