Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 6:01 am, September 20th, 2023 - 15 comments
From the outside, the New Zealand 2023 General Election seems both lacklustre and slightly strange. The Labour Government, having won a huge majority in 2020 is now fighting for its political life. Yet National, the main centre-right opposition party is still on average polling significantly worse now than they were when it lost power in 2017.
Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:46 pm, May 13th, 2023 - 33 comments
A guest post by Seddonville Miner outlining the history of voting rights in New Zealand and how Christopher Luxon’s recent claims about our voting system are hopelessly incorrect.
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 9:19 am, January 30th, 2023 - 18 comments
The left in the UK needs to accept they alone do not have majority support and need to work with what they term the “soft left” and more centrist factions to win. The current Labour leadership need to ensure that the left still has a stake in Labour winning, and give enough to motivate the left to vote and campaign for Labour. Look at the lessons learnt by the US Democrats.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 2:38 pm, January 26th, 2023 - 25 comments
Chris Luxon has provided another example of his ineptness by suggesting in an MMP environment that a vote in a Maori Seat is worth more than a vote in an European seat.
Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 9:50 pm, August 1st, 2022 - 13 comments
The latest attempt to construct a sensible political donations regime will likely again prove to be full of holes. Going back to basics would be much better. The good news is that the basics were comprehensively assessed 36 years ago by the 1986 Royal Commission on Electoral Reform. It recommended state funding.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 2:44 pm, August 1st, 2022 - 7 comments
Judge Jagose’s decision to acquit two persons linked to New Zealand First charged with obtaining control over $750,000 has opened up rather large holes in the obligations of political parties to report donations.
Written By: lprent - Date published: 12:22 pm, May 11th, 2022 - 33 comments
The early voting polls have opened in Australia, so the election there is nigh. Reading on the election there has been interesting. The weirdness of marginal seats. The burgeoning dissatisfaction and probable deciding impact of Aussie women on this election result.
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 11:31 pm, May 17th, 2021 - 35 comments
Originally posted on Nick Kelly’s Blog In a nation that has suffered over 100,000 COVID-19 deaths, one may be somewhat taken aback to see the latest YouGov Poll where The Conservative Party enjoy a 15% lead over the Labour Opposition. 17 months after the Conservatives won the 2019 General Election, it would be easy to […]
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:08 am, April 13th, 2021 - 14 comments
The Electoral laws about donations are pretty clear. Receive a donation over $30,000 and you should tell the Electoral Commission about the report within the next ten working days. But the Maori Party and the National Party have both managed to recently breach this simple requirement.
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 12:30 am, November 19th, 2020 - 8 comments
The reality is that the United States is a poor example of a functioning democracy in 2020.
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 12:27 am, October 20th, 2020 - 47 comments
The 2020 election was more than just a victory for Labour and more than a crushing defeat for the National Party (New Zealand’s main centre-right political party). This result marks a significant watershed in New Zealand politics which will likely have implications long after this parliamentary term.
Written By: weka - Date published: 12:32 pm, October 18th, 2020 - 135 comments
What kind of government might New Zealand have?
Written By: Matthew Whitehead - Date published: 2:33 am, October 18th, 2020 - 58 comments
On the preliminary results, we have our expected MPs. While Parliament may change a little, we now know its shape, and its likely members- with about three exceptions.
Written By: Matthew Whitehead - Date published: 4:30 pm, September 2nd, 2020 - 30 comments
Pollwatch returns, with a Labour majority government no longer a complete certainty, and with another poor result for National.
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 8:42 am, August 10th, 2020 - 33 comments
Critics have dismissed the Jacinda Ardern government as being one of style over substance. This is unfair given the challenges this government has faced and the policy achievements it has had. However, it is a government that has much work to do if it wins a second term. And its over-reliance on Jacinda as party leader is a huge strategic risk, especially when the governments front bench is perceived, rightly or wrongly, to be lightweight.
Written By: te reo putake - Date published: 7:11 pm, August 8th, 2020 - 45 comments
The latest Roy Morgan poll is out.
Crusher?
Crushed!
Written By: weka - Date published: 12:20 pm, August 5th, 2020 - 123 comments
With the left’s political fortunes having changed greatly in the past three years, and with more change on the way, does the left still want MMP?
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:42 am, July 30th, 2020 - 49 comments
Nick Smith has publicly opposed a change to the electoral system that would allow strategic manipulation of the electoral system. But only by Māori.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 11:41 am, May 1st, 2020 - 142 comments
A leaked UMR poll result puts National on 29%.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:38 am, April 9th, 2020 - 120 comments
Hot on the news that National’s polling has plunged to 35% Paula Bennett has publicly suggested that the election should be delayed. I wonder if they are related?
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:48 am, February 27th, 2020 - 10 comments
Over the past week National has shown a willingness to take really base aggressive positions on law and order issues for political advantages no matter what principles are at stake. And at the same time show a complete lack of understanding of the issues that are involved.
Written By: lprent - Date published: 7:41 am, February 25th, 2020 - 62 comments
Stuff has an article up about last years local body elections in Auckland. As usual the interesting parts are at the end. But I have to reiterate – online voting isn’t the answer. As a programmer, I’d just call it stupid and dangerous.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 2:42 pm, February 21st, 2020 - 23 comments
It appears that National’s dream of an alternative Green party that would drive the real Green Party below the threshold is in tatters with news that Sustainable NZ is on the skids.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:19 am, February 19th, 2020 - 25 comments
National’s recent donations returns suggest that a large total of their donations are made in the under $15,000 category, the benefit of which is that the donor’s identity does not have to be disclosed. Update: The four accused have been named.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:35 am, February 11th, 2020 - 59 comments
David Farrar has called for the suspension of Winston Peters from Cabinet for reasons which would also justify the suspension of Simon Bridges from the National Party.
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 2:56 am, January 13th, 2020 - 13 comments
Originally posted on Nick Kelly’s Blog
Written By: Incognito - Date published: 11:57 pm, December 25th, 2019 - 24 comments
What beats MMP? Open-list proportional representation with a low threshold would be a good option.
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 11:05 am, December 20th, 2019 - 21 comments
Democracy is a precious thing, and not something that can be taken for granted. Having an electoral system where every vote matters is crucial to creating a decent society. It is time that the UK started seriously debating electoral reform and how to improve its democratic systems.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 6:55 am, December 11th, 2019 - 75 comments
Two recent National advertisements involving drastically inaccurate graphics have attracted attention. And at the same time National is opposing changes to the Electoral Law that would extend the time that it is an offence to publish a false and misleading advertisement during an election period.
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 2:15 am, November 30th, 2019 - 2 comments
Originally posted Nick Kelly’s blog One feature of the UK election has been various electoral alliances or deals done. This has mostly occurred around the issue of Brexit. Early on in the campaign I wrote about Trump’s intervention in the UK election, specifically him calling on The Brexit Party and The Conservatives to do a deal. […]
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:29 am, November 29th, 2019 - 24 comments
Simon Bridges’ demand of an investigation into the New Zealand First Foundation appears to have backfired after it emerges that the NZ First Foundation was modelled on the National Party Foundation.
Recent Comments