First Virtual Election results in

Whale: “Actually if you bother to go to the Virtual Election site you will see you can vote for all registered political parties. The 4.5% measures all the piddling parties lumped together. There are none that come close.”

I know you can vote for them. I am wondering what the result of that voting is. I see that there are two parties you are NOT calling piddling parties (Progressives and United Future) that are polling below 1%. I would not be surprised at all if in that 4.5% there was another party or two hanging around the 1% mark. But we will never know unless the breakdown of the “Other” vote is reported.

There is a chance that NZ First could be gone this election based on current polling, and Dunne is being very careful not to lose his seat (hence his turnaround on the EFA last year) so as to not go the same way. I would like to know who is waiting in the wings to come on board. I know it isn’t your fault this isn’t reported – you’re just passing on the info. I was just expressing my frustration at the general attitude of commentators who present stats for incumbent parties who might be gone after the election, but not stats for other parties who might come in – more important data in my mind.

Hi Mr Dennis & co.
I’ve blogged the results for all parties here:
http://pulseofthenation.blogspot.com/2008/07/ve1-other-parties.html
The Family Party came in at 0.6%
Cheers,
Craig Neilson
Virtual Electoral Officer

Why is there no breakdown of the 4.5% “Other” votes? There must be parties in here polling higher than the Progressives (0.2%) and United (0.9%) to get the percentage up that much. There might be a couple of parties in here that could get a few seats if they could win an electorate, that would change the makeup of parliament a bit, but we cannot tell with how this has been reported.

I am thinking mainly of The Family Party, which may well be polling alongside United Future or even higher by the size of that Other category, and has a reasonable chance of grabbing an electorate seat.

It is unfortunate that polls and most commentators tend to just focus on parties currently in parliament, and makes it difficult for fresh blood to get known and therefore gain votes.

Actually if you bother to go to the Virtual Election site you will see you can vote for all registered political parties. The 4.5% measures all the piddling parties lumped together. There are none that come close.

What a shame to see ACT at 1.6%%. National could do much better as the government with ACT as a partner. Not just National but all of NZ with better economic policies.

Search for NZ Bloggers Union here http://pulse.jimungo.com/Groups.aspx

We should get the NZBU back up and going I reckon.