"Red Peak" offers New Zealand alternative to flora flag design

The controversial process of picking a new New Zealand flag became more convoluted on Wednesday as parties from the left and right agreed to add a fifth option to the list of possible alternatives.

The move followed a surging social media campaign to include a design dubbed "Red Peak," an arrangement of red, blue and black triangles around a white chevron.

Last week, a petition with about 50,000 signatures calling for Red Peak to be added was delivered to Parliament.

The new move subverts an official process, which saw a government-appointed panel choose the existing four official alternative designs -- all of them stylizations of the country's native fern.

Prime Minister John Key said Wednesday the government would back a bill drafted by the opposition Green Party offering Red Peak flag as a fifth option in the referendum later this year to pick a possible alternative to the current flag.

"We know Kiwis care about their flag, and they want a real choice when it comes to picking a new one," Gareth Hughes, the Green Member of Parliament who drafted the bill, said in a statement.

Key, who has repeatedly stated his preference for a fern design, defended his support to change the flag referendum process.

"The whole way through I've said my preference is to stick with the process that the officials gave us, stick with the four," Key said in a press conference reported by Radio New Zealand.

"I said I'd be prepared to go outside that, but I just didn't want people to play games."

The battle over Red Peak has been an added drama in an already divisive issue.

The main opposition Labour Party has given its support to Red Peak on condition that the first of two referendum ballots asks New Zealanders if they want to change their flag -- a proposal Key has opposed.

The opposition New Zealand First party, which opposes any change of the flag, said Wednesday that the Red Peak design was already used as a U.S. corporate logo and was similar to German army sentry boxes in the Second World War.

The four official alternative designs were the finalists from 10,292 designs submitted by the public.

The first referendum later in November and December will allow New Zealanders to choose the most preferred design from what looks sets to be a choice of five.

The most-preferred alternative would then go to a second binding referendum in March next year, when voters would choose between it and the current flag, which features the British Union Jack in the top left corner and four red stars of the Southern Cross on a blue field.

Critics of the present flag, including Key, say it is too similar to the Australian flag and that it is a hangover from the country's colonial past.

The entire project is expected to cost over 25 million NZ dollars (15.67 million U.S. dollars).

Political opponents have described it as a waste of money and a "vanity project" of the prime minister. Endi