The curse of the 5% threshold.
I think Labour’s goose was well cooked when Ardern quit. However I guess it was a question by which method it was going to be cooked. It turns out it was stuffed and burnt.
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JAK my comment isn’t about “rubbing anyone’s nose in it”. No need to be so defensive. Thankfully we live in a democracy where we can all freely cast our vote as we see fit.
The last few pages on this thread have seen strong cheerleading from a few posters for TOP & Manji, suggesting they had a real chance. I give him credit for a strong result in Ilam, but he was never close to a position where he might bring a TOP MP to parliament.
With all due respect, because you know that I consider you a friend, it kind of is. I was under no illusions that TOP was likely to win a seat. Yes, I did hope there might be a "miracle" in Ilam, but it wasn't something I was genuinely anticipating. It was, however worth a try, and I have zero regrets for supporting a party that I believe in. Isn't that what we all did?
I would just like to see us now, find a way to continue these discussions, on a general basis, rather than a continued us v them basis. I think we have had more than enough of that over the last God knows how many months. There is no need for it now. The election is done and dusted, as is the result. I genuinely hope the new government proves me wrong. I really do. Because I am one of those people struggling right now, who does not fit the "squeezed middle" criteria, and I need to hope there is some light at the end of the tunnel, not just for NZ, but for me as an individual.
BlackPeter is obviously really hurting right now. To go from believing that Ralf Manji was going to take Ilam, to seeing TOPs chances vaporised….that must be tough to take.
The question will be whether Manji sticks around with TOP, or has another crack at getting on the Christchurch city council, or heads home to England.
So - elections are over ... and hardly anybody in this forum seems to care for Nationals and ACT's waferthin win, Labours disastrous loss and the Greens or Te Patis Pyrrhus victory.
Interesting to see most of the comments on the TOP thread. Looks like TOP made an impression :) - which is good. As we all know, there is no such thing as negative publicity :) ;
Looking at the results for TOP: Party vote up by 50% - from 1.4% to 2.1%. Respectable, but obviously not enough to get a seat in parliament.
Raf did well in Ilam, but clearly - a cup of tea (as offered by National to David Seymour when ACT was in the doldrums) would have been more helpful than Chris Luxon excluding a coalition with TOP. Se la vie. Chris Luxon clearly wanted to be dependent on Winston Peters instead of having options with whom to go ... and I recon the coming years (probably already weeks) will show, whether he choose wisely.
Just imagine TOP and NZF in parliament and Chris could tie up a government tomorrow. Without this option Winston will play his hand to extract the absolute maximum for himself, and we will need to wait ways into November before we have a government.
Quite interesting - we've seen yesterday a blue wave as well as a green wave swapping over the land, and the only party combining blue and green - while improving - still didn't made it into parliament.
I think that TOP will need to work on its message - so far most people don't seem to be able to even put them correctly into the political spectrum (unfortunately it is only a very small number of voters who bother to read parties policies on the internet).
I think as well that they might need to work on their youth policy. While I believe that the concept of investing into our youth is crucial - the policies as stated are so far a bit crude ... and clearly easy to misunderstand.
Enough said about TOP.
Talking about wasted votes and sending messages: a vote is basically a message to politicians. Obviously - it looks many people didn't voted for the party which best represented their political views, but they voted tactically.
The farmers in the 2020 elections voted tactically, and they got what they deserved. Their tactics gave Labour for one term the absolute majority and - just look what an amazing result the land got for this tactical idiocy.
I prefer to give my vote to the party which best represents my political views. Better sending the right message instead of sending for tactical reasons the wrong message and empowering that way people to do things you don't want. This would be worse than just wasting ones vote. Ask the farmers :);