[EM] NZ's Labour ahead, etc. (FWD)

[DEMOREP1 at aol.com]

The below shows the obvious defect of requiring more than a Droop/Hare quota 
of the total seats in order to get a seat.
--------
NZ's Labour ahead one week out from election-poll

AUCKLAND, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Support for New Zealand's main opposition Labour 
Party had surged at the expense of the incumbent conservative National Party, 
according to a university election study reported in the Sunday Star Times 
newspaper. 

The Waikato University-based New Zealand Election Study confirmed a trend 
shown in several recent polls that a centre-left bloc headed by Labour was 
likely to hold power after the November 27 election. 

The poll showed party support for Labour had risen to 39.3 percent, with 
National slipping back to 27.7 percent. 

Comparative figures were not given by the newspaper. 

The Sunday Star Times said National now faced a new threat as its free-market 
ally ACT considered abandoning all hope of a centre-right victory. 

ACT could decide to go head-to-head with National to increase its own 
strength in opposition, turning its back on any co-operative election 
campaign, the paper said. 

Support for ACT had continued to slide over the week and was now at 5.9 
percent, according to the poll. 

Environmental party The Greens had seen its support mushroom to 7.2 percent, 
above the five percent threshold needed for representation in parliament 
under the German-style Mixed-Member-Proportional (MMP) system. 

Labour's left-leaning ally The Alliance lifted slightly to 10 percent 
support, while populist party New Zealand First slipped to 4.8 percent and 
would need to win a constituency seat to maintain a presence in parliament, 
the newspaper said. 

A total of 450 people were sampled in the study with a margin of error of 4.7 
percent. 

20:04 11-20-99