(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – The National party is holding on to the top spot in New Zealand’s electoral race, according to a poll by Colmar Brunton released by One News. 51 per cent of respondents would support the opposition party in next month’s legislative election.
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – The National party is holding on to the top spot in New Zealand’s electoral race, according to a poll by Colmar Brunton released by One News. 51 per cent of respondents would support the opposition party in next month’s legislative election.
The governing Labour is second with 33 per cent, followed by the Greens with eight per cent, the Maori Party with 2.8 per cent, New Zealand First with 2.6 per cent, ACT with 1.6 per cent, the Progressives with 0.3 per cent, and United Future with 0.1 per cent.
Labour leader Helen Clark has acted as New Zealand’s prime minister since December 1999. In November 2006, Don Brash—who had served as National’s leader since October 2003—announced his resignation and was substituted by finance spokesman John Key.
In the September 2005 ballot, Labour elected 50 lawmakers to the 121-seat House of Representatives, and assembled a coalition government with the Progressives. United Future and New Zealand First agreed to support the administration in confidence and supply votes for three years. National finished second, with 48 legislators.
New Zealand voters backed the mixed-member proportional voting system in a 1993 binding referendum. The rationale allocates 65 seats in the House of Representatives as first-past-the-post, and 55 seats through proportional representation party lists. Since 2002, seven seats must be filled by Maori representatives.
On Oct. 17, United Future leader Peter Dunne questioned the current system, saying, "The continued existence of the Maori seats has long since gone past the bumper sticker slogans of race-based representation by opponents of the seats, or preserving the special place of Maori in the electoral system by supporters of the seats. It is now an issue about totally distorting MMP and potentially perverting the will of the voters."
The next legislative election will take place on Nov. 8.
Polling Data
Thinking about the Party Vote, which is for a political party, which political party would you vote for?
|
Oct. 9 |
Oct. 2 |
Aug. 2008 |
|
|
National |
51% |
52% |
51% |
|
Labour |
33% |
33% |
37% |
|
Green |
8% |
7% |
3.5% |
|
Maori Party |
2.8% |
3% |
3.1% |
|
New Zealand First |
2.6% |
2% |
2.6% |
|
ACT |
1.6% |
2% |
0.6% |
|
Progressives |
0.3% |
0.3% |
– |
|
United Future |
0.1% |
1% |
0.7% |
Source: Colmar Brunton / One News
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,000 New Zealand voters, conducted from Oct. 4 to Oct. 9, 2008. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.
