The first political opinion poll to be published since the Sept. 20 general election shows Labour falling to its lowest ever support, at 22.5 percent, as measured by the Roy Morgan polling agency, compared with the 25 percent support it won on election night.
The National Party also drops support in the poll conducted between Sept. 29 and Oct. 12, dropping from 47 percent support on polling day to 43.5 percent in the latest poll. (See graph below)
Demonstrating turmoil on the left of politics since the centre-right National Party almost won an outright majority for the first time since proportional representation was introduced in 1996, the Green Party spurted from 10.7 percent support on election night to 17.5 percent. The Greens have consistently polled better than the vote they have managed to achieve at the ballot box.
New Zealand First sat at 7 percent, down from 8.7 percent on election night, the Maori Party was on 2 percent, compared with 1.3 percent on the night. While the margin of error could explain the difference, the Maori Party's rival, Mana, failed to return to Parliament and dropped to 1 percent support in the current poll, having achieved just 1.4 percent on election night, in alliance with the Kim Dotcom-backed Internet Party.
Perhaps frustratingly for Conservative Party leader Colin Craig, whose party achieved almost 4 percent of the vote on election night, one percentage point too little to be guaranteed seats in Parliament, is now polling bang on 5 percent in the Roy Morgan poll.
(BusinessDesk)
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Pattrick Smellie
Thu, 16 Oct 2014
Thu, 16 Oct 2014
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Labour keeps falling in first post-election poll
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