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Half of New Zealanders Would Back National
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The opposition National party keeps the upper hand in New Zealand, according to a poll by Colmar Brunton released by One News. 50 per cent of respondents would vote for National in next month’s legislative ballot.
The governing Labour party is second with 36 per cent, followed by the Greens with five per cent, and the Maori Party, New Zealand First and ACT all with two 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.
Yesterday, transport minister Annette King criticized Key, saying, "Today he has claimed that it has always been National party policy to toll a road only if there is a viable free alternative road for the public to travel on. Yet this is the same member who voted against the legislation brought in by Labour which required a free alternative road to be available."
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. 16 |
Oct. 9 |
Oct. 2 |
|
|
National |
50% |
51% |
52% |
|
Labour |
36% |
33% |
33% |
|
Green |
5% |
8% |
7% |
|
Maori Party |
2% |
2.8% |
3% |
|
New Zealand First |
2% |
2.6% |
2% |
|
ACT |
2% |
1.6% |
2% |
|
Progressives |
-- |
0.3% |
0.3% |
|
United Future |
-- |
0.1% |
1% |
Source: Colmar Brunton / One News
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,003 New Zealand voters, conducted from Oct. 11 to Oct. 16, 2008. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.