It will take a flax roots, bottom-up, community-based movement to rebuild democracy and a fair, caring and sustainable society. The NACT, Whale Oil, Kiwiblog, Lusk, MSM-linked, two track strategy worked for the right. It has been seeded in over a few years, and won't be…
This election result is not the end of the world for me. I don't have kids. I don't have to worry about whether their school will be closed, or privatised, whether they have shoes to wear or a lunch to take to school every morning.…
That didn't go so well. Three more years of National. In what appears to be a resounding victory it has achieved what I thought was impossible, attained an outright majority in Parliament. The only silver lining is that the Conservative Party did not get elected…
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I am hoping for a good proportion of the vote for the Green Party. The list is: 1. TUREI, Metiria 2. NORMAN, Russel 3. HAGUE, Kevin 4. SAGE, Eugenie 5. HUGHES, Gareth 6. DELAHUNTY, Catherine 7. GRAHAM, Kennedy 8. GENTER, Julie Anne 9. MATHERS, Mojo…
Will Hone hang on and bring in Internet Mana MPs with him? The polls suggest that the race with Kelvin Davis is neck and neck although Hone has this habit of doing far better than the landline polls would suggest. 19:40: 15.15% Smaller booths. Hone Harawira (Mana)…
Will the coiffured one win? Or will Labour's Virginia Andersen prevail? 19:35: 21.7% counted. The smaller booths. Peter Dunne (UF) 4307 Virginia Anderson (Lab) 3804 Brett Hudson (Nat) 1748 Tane Woodley (GP) 715 This is going well for Ginny. The right vote is splitting nicely. 21:35: 53.3% counted.…
Who will win Epsom? Will enough people rebel at John Key's instruction to vote for the ACT candidate or will ACT's extreme policies and Jaime Whyte's weirdness mean that the people of Epsom will rebel and vote for Paul Goldsmith? This seat is one of…
From Moira Coatsworth.... Dear Friend, The polls are now closed, and it won’t be long until we know how the votes have fallen. What we already know is that we wouldn’t have achieved our largest grassroots campaign without the amazing efforts of thousands of people…
With over 700,000 early votes and with voting today appearing to be heavy (at least out west) the signs are that turnout will be good. The polls suggest that New Zealand First may hold the balance of power although if the Conservatives make it over 5%…
The final tally for advance voting is 717,579. This is somewhat larger than 334,558 in 2011 and 270,427 in 2008. That is pretty impressive. The electoral commission has a schedule published for tonight and later for the count. Welcome to the New Zealand election results…
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I'm getting scattered reports and images of political advertising popping up on various websites. They seem to look like accidents more than a deliberate strategy. For instance At 8:58am, I have an image off the Stuff mobile website main page of a election advertisement for…
Stephen Price wrote on an interesting Appeal court decision that relates to blogging. In a significant Court of Appeal decision (see Murray v Wishart), hot off the press, the judges have unanimously ruled that a third party publisher (the owner of a Facebook page that…
At 12pm tonight, the comments section on this site will (largely) stop accepting comments. The reason for this is that the electoral law and the electoral commission are quite clear. On election day you may not urge others to vote or not vote a particular way.…
If you haven't received a voting pack from the elections commission, you may or may not be enrolled. So if you want to vote (and you damn well should), check if you are enrolled on this link. If you don't show up on the electronic…
The polls are now closed and counting is underway to see if Scotland asserts its right to be an independent nation again. Every web site I just tried to find out details of the count is down. There must be huge world wide interest in it.…
A guest post from a young woman who cast her vote today. I am incredibly proud to be a New Zealander today! 121 years ago New Zealand became the first country in the world to grant women the right to vote. If you are not enrolled…
Dirty politics. Ministerial resignations. Spying revelations. John Key's credibility in tatters. A member of Key's staff in hiding. Various enquiries underway. A new scandal emerging the very day before the election. NZ an international laughing stock. The chickens of six years worth of the most…
... with pre-election day fervour. It's an election that's going down to the wire. The energy is there for the left to keep talking to people, and to encourage as many as possible to get out and vote. Some are voting today because it's the…
Reposted from Polity. The reporting of this morning’s final New Zealand Herald poll is nothing short of a disgrace. First, here’s the report: Moment of Truth gifts Team Key a late bounce in polls Last voter survey before election day shows jump in National’s rating…
The words of the title of this post are those of Ombudsman Dame Beverly Wakem: Ombudsman 'appalled' by ex-Customs lawyer's OIA allegations ... She said the Ombudsman's relationship with the government service was based on trust. Without that, she said, "we're all in trouble". "We…
In the past 12 hours or so three final polls have been released and they all point to the election going down to the wire. National was 45% in last night's Colmar Brunton, 48.2% in this morning's Herald digipoll and in the Stuff Ipsos poll…
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A special call to work from David Cunliffe. http://youtu.be/0UK8ZPtjaxo If you don't already have an date with a political party of the left on Saturday, then the best thing you can do is to Firstly vote left (and maybe Labour). Find a party that can…
The headlines recently have strongly focused on the exposure of John Key and National's empty facade and it's lack of vision for a better NZ. Meanwhile, opposition parties have continued to campaign positively, with their detailed policies: making people, fairness, & environment central. The Greens haven't had the sensational headlines. However, they have…
This direct mail has gone out without an authorisation statement to who knows how many kiwi households. Add this on top of losing their press sec today and you have to wonder if the Conservatives are going to make it to election day in one…
The latest Reid Research poll has the Conservatives a hair's breadth away from being, officially, a necessary coalition partner if National wants a third term. For a party which has been campaigning on a "let's just keep skimming forward across a placid lake" narrative, this…
Watching the final leaders' "debate" last night, I was particularly struck by the responses to the question (paraphrased) "what will your government do in its first 100 days?". Cunliffe (if I may steal Mickysavage's list) was quick off the mark and compelling: start raising the minimum…
Key is down to his last fig leaf on spying: Key not sure if US spy agency has role here Prime Minister John Key can't rule out US spy agency NSA having New Zealanders' electronic communications under surveillance - even if this country's own Government…