(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - New Zealand’s main opposition party remains the most popular organization in the country but has lost public support, according to a poll by Roy Morgan International. 48 per cent of respondents would vote for the conservative National party in the next election to the House of Representatives, down four points since mid-July.

The governing Labour party is second with 34 per cent, followed by the Greens with 7.5 per cent, New Zealand First with 6.5 per cent, the Maori Party with two per cent, and ACT with 1.5 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.

On Aug. 14, while on a vacation in a remote location in New Zealand, Clark tried in vain to save her mountain guide’s life after he apparently suffered a heart attack. The experienced guide, Gottlieb Braun-Elwert, was a personal friend of the prime minister’s family and accompanied them on numerous expeditions for over a decade.

Dave Crow, a member of the New Zealand Mountain Guides Association, said that Clark, her husband and two cabinet ministers tried to revive Braun-Elwert for almost two hours, and declared: "They did an incredible job of trying to resuscitate him, they worked on him for over two hours, they’re a party of four or five and they did a huge job as a team of trying to bring him back around."

Polling Data

If an election were held today which party would receive your party vote?

Source: Roy Morgan International
Methodology: Interviews with 836 New Zealand voters, conducted from Jul. 28 to Aug. 10, 2008. No margin of error was provided.

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