New Zealand Election Countdown: Final Campaign Week Marred With More Controversial 'Revelations'

The final week of the election campaign saw Kim Dotcom, American journalist Glenn Greenwald, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden as key speakers in the "Moment of Truth" event held in Auckland on Sept 15.

According to an ABC report, the public rally was organised by Dotcom, the former Megaupload founder fighting a U.S. extradition for copyright infringement and founder of the Internet Party. The New Zealand-based Internet mogul has previously hinted months ago of dropping a bombshell against the National party.

Prime Minister John Key has been accused of allowing mass surveillance of New Zealanders. Mr Key has denied the allegations of spying. However, Mr Key said he cannot provide absolute assurance that the U.S. National Security Agency does not conduct mass surveillance on New Zealanders. He only declared he was "comfortable" it was not happening.

The prime minister admitted Snowden might have seen information about NSA's mass surveillance programmes, but Mr Key reiterated the data could not have come from New Zealand's security and intelligence agency.

Snowden had claimed some of the surveillance information came from New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau. Mr Key said he hopes the people will accept his word because he believes it is correct.

Earlier in the week, Snowden and Greenwald released documents purportedly showing GCSB's mass surveillance project known as Speargun. The documents alleged that New Zeaand's Southern Cross international data cable was used in spying.

Mr Key addressed this allegation and said the documents contained incomplete information. The project was actually a cyber security project which was scaled back due to concerns that it would be mistakenly identified as a tool for mass surveillance. The prime minister did not deny that New Zealand gathered foreign intelligence but the act was done for "lawful reasons."

Dotcom revealed on social media that he will work with Labour and the Greens to grant Edward Snowden asylum in New Zealand if Mr Key would lose the office after the election. Snowden is currently in Russia to escape U.S. extradition. He is accused of espionage after revealing sensitive intelligence data.

As to the outcome of the election, Cunliffe is not about to lose hope. He only told media he was focused on "winning. " Mr Key is banking on New Zealand's economic performance in recent years to give him another term as prime minister.