New poll puts Parliament on knife-edge, Opportunity as potential kingmaker
A new Post/Freshwater Strategy poll has put Parliament on a knife-edge, with neither a National-led nor a Labour-led grouping holding enough support to govern.
The result leaves the Opportunity Party as a potential kingmaker, able to decide which larger bloc could form a government, according to RNZ.
The latest poll, conducted in partnership with Infrastructure NZ, put Labour at 28.7 percent and National at 27.6 percent. The figures were reported on 19 October by RNZ and other outlets carrying the Post research.
The result continues a run in which both major parties have polled under 30 percent. In September, a Post/Freshwater Strategy poll recorded Labour and National both under 30 percent for the second time in a month, according to The Post. That September poll put Labour on 28 percent, down seven points since June.
Other recent polls have put the Greens at a similar level across different pollsters. The Post/Freshwater Strategy poll put the Greens at 14 percent in early October, while the Greens recorded 14.8 percent in the RNZ-Reid Research poll and 13.3 percent in the latest Taxpayers’ Union-Curia poll.
Separate Freshwater Strategy research for The Post in September also asked voters whether New Zealand is heading in the right direction, about their top priorities and about their preferred prime minister, according to Freshwater Strategy. A poll reported in late September found 24 percent of voters trusted Green co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick to make the right decisions for New Zealand.
