Ap Sports Poll

Admin | January 06, 2012 | Comments Off

Ap Sports Poll

Ap Sports Poll

As unofficial campaigning for the 2008 national elections in New Zealand gathers momentum, the big issues emerge: economics, health and education, climate change, law and order.

But sometimes, even with a proportional representation voting system such as that in New Zealand, less obvious concerns can have a major outcome on decision-making. In Aotearoa, one of those things may be the health of the national sport, rugby, and the fortunes of the national team, the All Blacks.

How the All Blacks May Influence the Vote

Given its importance to the national psyche (described in a related article on Suite 101, Rugby and the New Zealand Identity), the national sport has the potential to affect the timing of the 2008 election, voter turnout, and possibly the choices that voters make.

Timing and Turnout

The Prime Minister, Helen Clark, decides the date of the election, which must however be a Saturday no later than 15 November. 25 October is the Saturday of a holiday weekend (Labour Day) in New Zealand and not a good election time from the perspective of voters and campaign workers being at home.

However, the All Blacks are touring at the end of the year, and that presents a similar issue for the Prime Minister. On November 1, New Zealand plays the Australian Wallabies in the much-anticipated Bledisloe Cup test, this year for the first time to be played in Hong Kong. If the election were held on this day the impact on turnout (as New Zealanders will be assembling to watch the test on television) could potentially also be significant, and the clash would be bad news for television networks committed to election-day coverage.

In a sample of non-voter feedback by the Chief Electoral Office during the 2005 elections, 53 percent of people who did not vote made the decision not to do so on election day. (In S. Levine and N. Roberts, editors, The Baubles of Office. Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2005).