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The Maori Party faces an uphill battle to re-enter Parliament, as a new poll places it behind the Labor Party in a key electorate seat.
A Māori Television-Curia Research voting poll of votes in the Te Tai Hauāuru Maori electorate, released Monday night, has put Labor’s Adrian Rurawhe far ahead of Maori Party candidate Debbie Ngarewa-Packer.
Ngarewa-Packer has been widely regarded as the Maori Party’s biggest chance to re-enter Parliament, after the party was toppled in the 2017 elections.
The latest poll, of 496 voters in Te Tai Hauāuru, shows that 38 percent intended to vote for Rurawhe and 20 percent for Ngarewa-Packer. However, about 30 percent of voters were undecided.
Brody Dolan / Stuff
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer of the Maori Party is behind Adrian Rurawhe of the Labor Party in the latest poll for the Te Tai Hauāuru seat.
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In 2017, Rurawhe won the seat by a margin of 1,039 votes, with 43% of the votes. He has said Stuff He was more confident in winning this election than in 2017.
In Monday’s poll, the Maori Party also faced lower-level support in the party’s vote.
Of the voters in the electorate, 51 percent would vote for Labor, 10 percent for the Maori party, 4 percent for Nationals and Greens each, and 3 percent for NZ First.
However, 50 percent of voters wanted Labor to work with the Maori Party on other possible coalition partners, the Greens (with 38 percent) and NZ First (with 27 percent).
But Ngarewa-Packer said she was encouraged by the number of undecided voters and said the electorate was “a winner.”
“I am really satisfied with the poll results showing what we have been hearing, that this race is open and that we are in a great position to convince Te Tai Hauāuru over the last three weeks why they should support me with their vote of the candidate “.
The Maori Party has similarly struggled to gain ground across the country, with 1 percent of the polls alongside the new conservatives TOP and Advance New Zealand in a 1 News-Colmar Brunton poll Monday night.
Work has increased due to its response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
When asked about the most important issue of this election, 6 percent of Te Tai Hauāuru voters said that Covid-19 was the main concern. The same number said housing was the biggest problem, 7% said it was the economy, and 23% said they were unsure or declined to respond.
When asked if anyone in their household had lost their job due to Covid-19, 88 percent said this had not happened.
Te Tai Hauāuru voters supported both referendums, the End of Life Election Law and the legalization of recreational cannabis. About 57% indicated their support for End of Life Choice and 53% indicated that they would vote for the legalization of cannabis.
The survey was carried out over three days, from September 23 to 25, through calls to landlines and cell phones. There was a margin of error of 4.4% and a confidence level of 95%.
