elections Archive

  • Gareth Hughes

    Youth! Y U NO ENROL? - by Gareth Hughes



    It is important young Kiwis are involved in the political process. They are the future and have a stake in our democracy. However, at the moment almost a third of 18–24-year-olds and a fifth of 25–29-year-olds are not enrolled to vote in the upcoming election! If you aren’t enrolled you can’t vote and have a [...] read more
    September 16, 2011 9:42 am - 59 Comments
  • frog

    Democracy in NZ: Lost, Stolen or just Mislaid? - by frog



    Last weekend Jeanette Fitzsimons delivered the inaugural Rod Donald Memorial lecture to a packed audience in Christchurch. Here are some highlights of the speech and you can read the whole thing here. Running through the history of democracy has been the issue of just who is a member of society? In ancient Athens women and [...] read more
    November 23, 2010 12:22 pm - 21 Comments
  • Sue Kedgley

    Wellington local body cliff-hanger - by Sue Kedgley



    I could hardly believe it, when the Returning Officer read out the figures—Celia Wade Brown was only 40 votes behind incumbent Mayor Kerry Prendergast! Kerry looked mortified, Celia looked stunned, and the crowd that had gathered in the Wellington Council foyer looked amazed—because there had been no hint, in the media, that the election was [...] read more
    October 11, 2010 4:31 pm - 21 Comments
  • frog

    Podcast: Standing for something - by frog



    Local government is democracy working at the grass roots. The stuff that goes on around the council table can have a massive impact on the quality of our lives. I talked to Green MP, Sue Kedgley, one of the first Greens to win office to a city council. Click this thing to hear from her… [...] read more
    August 12, 2010 11:18 am - 9 Comments
  • frog

    Jeanette’s appeal to overseas voters - by frog



    According to Statistics New Zealand’s Sustainable Development and Population team there are up to 600,000 New Zealanders living overseas, most of them in Aussie (where Rayna Fahey just held her Green Party campaign launch last night).  Not all of them are eligible to vote, but presumably a significant proportion are.  Last election there were 28,000 [...] read more
    August 13, 2008 9:52 am - 42 Comments
  • frog

    No obvious successor to the Oil President - by frog



    While we are on the topic of US politics, check out this Follow the Oil link which shows how much donations each presidential candidate has received from big oil companies in the US.  It looks like the oil companies picked it wrong to start with, making their biggest donations to Rudi Giuliani (US$634,858) and Mitt [...] read more
    March 3, 2008 12:23 pm - 8 Comments
  • frog

    How to rig an election - by frog



    Well politicians are slowly returning to Parliament after a long hot summer break, but those who aren’t back yet might want to put this little book on their beach towel reading list for the weekend – Allen Raymond and Ian Spiegelman’s How to Rig an Election. Freakonomics describes Raymond as: ‘A former G.O.P. political operative [...] read more
    January 16, 2008 5:04 pm - 9 Comments