E- day November 8th?

The Herald wonders if the election will be on November 8 .

Remember, remember the 8th of November – at least if rumours from the Beehive are to be believed.

With less than three months to the last possible election day, November 15, that’s when sources are predicting the country will be heading to the polls.

Auckland University political scientist Dr Joe Atkinson expected the Government to set a date shortly and said the election would be left “until the last possible moment”.

“The polls aren’t very good at the moment. The longer Labour can have to criticise National policies the better. That clearly favours the Government leaving the election late.”

Atkinson said polls were notoriously unreliable this far out from an election and New Zealand was a “volatile” electorate.

There aren’t many Saturday’s left before the last possible date for the election which is November 15th. That’s the day after Canterbury Aniversary Day and the extra work involved in special votes generally persuades government’s against holding elections on long weekends.

There is now only one weekend left in September if we’re to get a month’s notice, then the next three weekends fall in school holidays and that too would mean more special votes October 18 is a possibility and that’s John Key’s pick, but that in itself is probably enough to make Helen Clark pick any other date.

The following weekend is Labour Weekend which is another to be avoided and that just leaves November 1or 8.

So which will it be? Only the desperate and dateless one knows and she’s not telling us yet.