The papers are full of the expected establishment hysteria today, trying to paint the election as a done deal for the Nats. Given Peters’ well known love for the media, I wonder what he will make of that? Anyway, the best pundit on the topic so far is Professor Richard Shaw.
‘No such thing’ as moral majority – politics professor
A politics professor says there’s no such thing as a ‘moral majority’ in the New Zealand constitution as the wash up from Saturday’s cliffhanger election continues.
National won 46 percent of the party vote, and has claimed it has a ‘moral’ right to govern despite losing its majority.
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Professor Richard Shaw Shaw told The AM Show that when it comes to forming a government coalition, all that matters is that a combination of parties can persuade the Governor General they can reach 61 seats. “The word ‘moral’ doesn’t appear in our constitution,” said Prof Shaw.
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Prof Shaw said Mr Peters faces his toughest decision yet under MMP, and that it is “not a comfortable position for him”.“I think that he is caught between a bit of a rock and a bit of a hard place. I think it will depend significantly on what his base says. If his interpretation is that his voters … gave him a mandate to change the government, then if there is a moral question it becomes framed in terms of what the voters want.
“If, on the other hand, he thinks his voters are sending him a message that his job is to maintain a stable and continuous government, which was the National Party’s line, then that’s a different look.”
When asked who he believes won the election, Prof Shaw had this to say: “Nobody’s won the election yet. The people who won the election are the people who form the government.”
Further interesting reading for the day: Mark Sainsbury: Bad blood makes National-NZ First deal unlikely.
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