Poll: New Zealanders want increased parliamentary mandate

By RNZ

New Zealanders want the legislature to increase from three to four years and 90% of them have full confidence in the democratic process.

That’s according to the latest Research New Zealand poll, which looked at the length of New Zealand’s parliamentary term, the desirability of compulsory voting, and confidence in democracy.

Research NZ partner Emanuel Kalafatelis said that after the US elections they decided to seek the opinion of New Zealanders on how our democratic processes align with those around the world.

He said the vast majority of New Zealanders have confidence in the country’s democratic system.

“We got 90 per cent and that is significantly higher than the level of opinion regarding the democratic processes in Australia, 66 [per cent], the United Kingdom at 55, the United States at 23 and Hong Kong, less than 10, specifically 8 percent. “

Kalafatelis said 61 percent of the people wanted the parliamentary term increased from three years to four.

“I think we shouldn’t discount that result, I think we should be watching that because obviously a significant proportion of New Zealanders are in favor of that for one reason or another.

Younger respondents were less in favor of changing the parliamentary mandate than older respondents, he said.

“Older respondents have obviously had more experience of the electoral process and therefore might have the opinion that three years is not long enough for a government to get its feet under the table and do what it needs to do. and perhaps that is behind the result we have here. “

Only 40% of respondents believe voting should be mandatory, compared to 46% who do not believe it should be mandatory.

But Kalafatelis said it was unclear from the survey whether respondents knew that New Zealanders 18 and older must register for general elections, although voting is not required.

Only 20 percent of those polled were in favor of lowering the voting age from 18 to 16.

Kalafatelis said that, as expected, that increased somewhat for respondents ages 18 to 34, with 28 percent favoring the move.

“It’s not much higher, so I think another way to look at it is to look at the number of 18-34 year olds who are not in favor of increasing it, about 70 percent, so even that group is saying ‘No, I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to lower the voting age from 18 to 16.’

Kalafatelis said New Zealanders were clearly proud of the country’s democratic processes and that the only idea on the table in terms of electoral reform was to increase the parliamentary term from three to four years.