[ad_1]
Labor has maintained its dominant leadership, but still cannot rule alone, according to a political poll leading up to the final debate between Judith Collins and Jacinda Ardern.
The 1 NEWS Colmar Brunton poll, just two days before the elections, shows Labor at 46 percent, while the national at 31 percent.
This would see Labor with 59 seats in parliament and the national with 40.
The Green Party was at 8 percent, giving them 11 seats. ACT was at 8 percent and NZ First was up one percentage point to 3 percent.
READ MORE:
* Election 2020: Labor machinery in full swing as National looks desperate
* Election 2020: National mistakenly depicts a ‘strong’ Labor supporter in a pamphlet
* Election 2020: Grant Robertson hails NZ’s worst recorded shrinkage as ‘better than anticipated’
The poll was conducted between Saturday and Wednesday and had a 3.1 percent margin of error.
Labor needs to reach the magic number of 61 seats to rule alone.
The poll comes after National’s Judith Collins dumped everything but the kitchen sink to get attention in the campaign.
He branded his opponents “wretched”, “sheep” and hungry for money. He grabbed the electoral coverage saying that it was the fault of the fat people that they were fat.
Meanwhile, the poll is moot for many New Zealanders who have already voted in an extraordinary wave of early voting. By October 12, one million had already cast their vote.
Collins and Ardern will meet in a final live debate at 7 p.m. Thursday, hosted by TVNZ.
The previous 1 News poll, nine days before the election, showed Labor with a 15-point lead over National.
The workforce was then at 47 percent versus 32 percent at National.
ACT still looked strong with 11 potential seats in Parliament behind its 8 percent.
The future did not look promising for NZ First, which was still languishing below the 5 percent threshold at 2 percent.
ACT leader David Seymour was third with 2% and NZ First’s Winston Peters with 1%.