NZ election results

The National Party’s Waitaki Electorate is partying in Oamaru.

National’s Jacqui Dean is the only candidate who was seeking both ticks but we’ll wait for some of the indicator booths to be counted before we get too excited.

Update #1: 11.1% of votes counted:

National Party	133,847	48.79	44	19	63
Labour Party	86,035	31.36	18	22	40
Green Party	16,919	6.17	0	8	8
Mäori Party	5,832	2.13	5	0	5
ACT New Zealand	9,347	3.41	1	3	4
Jim Anderton’s Progressive	2,304	0.84	1	0	1
United Future	2,204	0.80	1	0	1
New Zealand First Party	12,373	4.51	0	0	0

That 4.51% for New Zealand First is too close to 5% for comfort.

Update # 2 With 32.9% counted:

National Party	269,633	47.81	42	19	61
Labour Party	180,069	31.93	20	21	41
Green Party	36,083	6.40	0	8	8
ACT New Zealand	20,148	3.57	1	4	5
Mäori Party	12,025	2.13	5	0	5
Jim Anderton’s Progressive	5,031	0.89	1	0	1
United Future	4,763	0.84	1	0	1
New Zealand First Party	24,035	4.26	0	0	0

Update # 3: First cheer of the night – TV1 just said NZ First won’t be in parliament.

Update # 4: Jacqui Dean is the new MP for Waitaki, Labour’s candidate David Parker conceded the seat – at 9.30.

Update # 4 : With 90.9% counted:

National Party	859,959	45.58	41	18	59
Labour Party	634,083	33.61	21	22	43
Green Party	121,982	6.47	0	8	8
ACT New Zealand	69,911	3.71	1	4	5
Mäori Party	42,221	2.24	5	0	5
Jim Anderton’s Progressive	17,665	0.94	1	0	1
United Future	16,804	0.89	1	0	1
New Zealand First Party	80,114	4.25	0	0	0

Update # 5: with 96.9% of polling places counted:

National Party	921,446	45.51	41	18	59
Labour Party	681,707	33.67	21	22	43
Green Party	130,995	6.47	0	8	8
ACT New Zealand	75,148	3.71	1	4	5
Mäori Party	45,465	2.25	5	0	5
Jim Anderton’s Progressive	19,045	0.94	1	0	1
United Future	18,116	0.89	1	0	1

Update # 6: From RadioNZ

Results: Party Vote

National	45.5%
Labour	33.7%
Green	6.5%
NZ First	4.2%
ACT	3.7%
Maori	2.2%
Progressive	0.9%
United Future	0.9%

(Total votes counted: 97.6%)

Update # 7: with 98.3% counted

National Party	936,315	45.46	41	18	59
Labour Party	695,014	33.74	21	22	43
Green Party	133,108	6.46	0	8	8
ACT New Zealand	76,352	3.71	1	4	5
Mäori Party	46,208	2.24	5	0	5
Jim Anderton’s Progressive	19,303	0.94	1	0	1
United Future	18,389	0.89	1	0	1

Results: Party Vote

National	45.4%
Labour	33.8%
Green	6.5%
NZ First	4.2%
ACT	3.7%
Maori	2.3%
Progressive	0.9%
United Future	0.9%

(Total votes counted: 98.6%)

Update #  8: the blue team has won.

Results: Party Vote

National	45.5%
Labour	33.8%
Green	6.4%
NZ First	4.2%
ACT	3.7%
Maori	2.3%
Progressive	0.9%
United Future	0.9%

(Total votes counted: 99.7%)

National Party	949,584	45.47	41	18	59
Labour Party	704,909	33.75	21	22	43
Green Party	134,400	6.44	0	8	8
ACT New Zealand	77,699	3.72	1	4	5
Mäori Party	46,721	2.24	5	0	5
Jim Anderton’s Progressive	19,507	0.93	1	0	1
United Future	18,604	0.89	1	0	1
New Zealand First Party	87,929	4.21	0	0	0
Kiwi Party	11,599	0.56	0	0	0
The Bill and Ben Party	10,728	0.51	0	0	0
Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party	7,571	0.36	0	0	0
New Zealand Pacific Party	6,944	0.33	0	0	0
Family Party	6,944	0.33	0	0	0
Alliance	1,720	0.08	0	0	0
Democrats for Social Credit	1,112	0.05	0	0	0
Libertarianz	1,024	0.05	0	0	0
Workers Party	824	0.04	0	0	0
RAM – Residents Action Movement	404	0.02	0	0	0
The Republic of New Zealand Party	298	0.01	0	0	0
			70	52	122

Update:  # 9- final result:

Polling Places Counted:	6,304 of 6,304 (100.0%)
Total Votes Counted:	2,103,842
Special Votes:	208,001
Less than 6 votes taken in Polling Places:	1,261
Party	Party Votes	% Votes	Electorate Seats	List Seats	Total Seats
National Party	951,145	45.45	41	18	59
Labour Party	706,666	33.77	21	22	43
Green Party	134,622	6.43	0	8	8
ACT New Zealand	77,843	3.72	1	4	5
Mäori Party	46,894	2.24	5	0	5
Jim Anderton’s Progressive	19,536	0.93	1	0	1
United Future	18,629	0.89	1	0	1

Record turnout for 08 election?

Chief electoral officer Robert Peden said more than 200,000 advance votes were cast, a 30% increase on the advance tally in 2005 when 80% of those eligible to vote did so.

“One of the questions would be whether people are choosing to advance vote rather than vote on election day, or whether it is just part of a large turnout,” he said.

Counting of the advance votes started at 3pm and the first results are expected at 8.30 this evening.

Among those who cast an early vote was Iris O’Connell, who turns 100 today.

Mrs O’Connell, who lives at the Little Sisters of the Poor in Brockville, said yesterday she could not recall how many times she had voted, but said she always had exercised the right from the age of 21 (the then age of eligibility).

On the day of her birth, newspapers reported demonstrations by suffragettes in London.

Universal suffrage was not achieved in Britain until 20 years later. New Zealand had universal suffrage from 1893.

Democracy

A selection from Democracy Quotes.

If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost. –  Aristotle.

It is not the fact of liberty but the way in which liberty is exercised that ultimately determines whether liberty itself survives. – Dorothy Thompson.

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.-  E.B. White.

The only way to make sure people you agree with can speak is to support the rights of people you don’t agree with. – Eleanor Holmes-Norton.

The unconscious democracy of America is a very fine thing. It is a true and deep and instinctive assumption of the equality of citizens, which even voting and elections have not destroyed. – G.K. Chesterton.

Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve. George Bernard Shaw.

Civilization is the process in which one gradually increases the number of people included in the term ‘we’ or ‘us’ and at the same time decreases those labelled ‘you’ or ‘them’ until that category has no one left in it. – Howard Winters.

Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions – it only guarantees equality of opportunity. Irving Kristol.

We have learned to say that the good must be extended to all of society before it can be held secure by any one person or any one class. But we have not yet learned to add to that statement, that unless all [people] and all classes contribute to a good, we cannot even be sure that it is worth having. – Jane Addams.

Voting is one of the few things where boycotting in protest clearly makes the problem worse rather than better. – Jane Auer.

The price of the democratic way of life is a growing appreciation of people’s differences, not merely as tolerable, but as the essence of a rich and rewarding human experience. – Jerome Nathanson.

Democracy encourages the majority to decide things about which the majority is ignorant. – John Simon.

Democracy is a process by which the people are free to choose the man who will get the blame. – Laurence J. Peter.

Decision by democratic majority vote is a fine form of government, but it’s a stinking way to create. Lillian Hellman.

We preach the virtues of democracy abroad. We must practice its duties here at home. Voting is the first duty of democracy. – Lyndon B. Johnson.

To safeguard democracy the people must have a keen sense of independence, self-respect, and their oneness. –  Mohandas K Ghandi.

The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment. – Robert M Hutchins.

Without general elections, without unrestricted freedom of press and assembly, without a free struggle of opinion, life dies out in every public institution, becomes a mere semblance of life, in which only the bureaucracy remains as the active element. – Rosa Luxemburg.

Democracy means not “I am as good as you are” but “You are as good as I am.” – Theodore Parker.

I know of no safe repository of the ultimate power of society but people. And if we think them not enlightened enough, the remedy is not to take the power from them, but to inform them by education. – Thomas Jefferson.

So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men. – Voltaire. 

 

I’m voting

I’m voting today:

Because I can.

Because people fought and died to give the right to do it.

Because there are other places where people still don’t have that right.

Because my vote will be counted.

Because I believe one vote can make a difference.

Office 2009 upgrade

Adam Smith at Inquiring Mind is having a tech tantrum (with which I identify) in his Saturday rant – he might need the Office 2009 upgrade which has some interesting new features:

Victorian domestic godess reveals secrets

In the 1800s Oamaru was destined to be a city.

It had a safe harbour, it was on the way to the goldfields, the hinterland was well suited to agriculture and it was a long way from the land wars in the North Island.

It also had a ready supply of limestone which was used to build beautiful buildings.

But the gold ran out, the land wars were settled, the north became more attractive and that early promise of city status was never realised. However, the buildings remained and while a few fell into disrepair and some were demolished, most remain.

A couple of decades ago people began to realise that these buildings shouldn’t just be preserved they should be used and celebrated. The appreciation of the town’s Victorian heritage grew, a few people thought it would be a good idea to take advantage of the opportunity they provided and the seeds for the annual heritage celebrations were sown.

They’re now an annual event with a growing number of locals and visitors getting into the spirit of the occasion by dressing in Victorian clothes.

Staple events include a penny farthing tour, the New Zealand penny farthing chamionships, the Victorian fete and the world stone sawing championships.

This year’s programme also features a Victorian domestic godess who will reveal the secrets of ensnaring, and keeping, a husband.

. . . those attending could expect to learn about the intricacies of Victorian courtship, sneak a peek into a lady’s boudoir – “where you’ll see some very private things” and discover what a man really wants – “a woman who has skills in every room in the house”.

She will share simple and effective recipes to woo a man – “we all know the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach” – with the audience receiving a copy of her first and probably last publication – Encyclopedia of Valuable Recipes: a Treasure House of Useful Knowledge for the Wants of Everyday Life.

There may be some men who’d like to go back to those days – and a lot more women who wouldn’t 🙂