KEY POINTS:
United Future's Peter Dunne is now employing megaphone politics over the Maori seats - equating a likely overhang in the Maori seats with "corruption."
It is astonishing display of finger-pointing at a party formed in 2004 about the rules of electoral system passed by Parliament in 1993.
"Dunne challenges Maori Party to front up on corruption" says the headline of the press statement he has just issued.
Presumably he means a corruption of proportionality.
There hasn't been a more petulant tone from Dunne since the night of the 2005 election, when he was kept waiting by TV One.
The intro is as almost as bad as the headline: "It's been two days since I raised this issue and the Maori Party co-leaders, Tariana Turia and Dr Pita Sharples, along with their Green party cheerleaders, have been conspicuously silent."
Dunne explains that while the polls have National ahead by a long way, "the will of the voters could be perverted by the Maori Party creating an overhang."
If you don't know what an overhang is, in short the Maori Party could secure more votes than its party vote delivers it which it could keep. That expands the size of the 120-seat Parliament (it is 121 at present with an overhang of one from the Maori Party) and alters the number required for a majority. A Parliament of 123 seats, for example would require a Government to have 62 seats instead of 61; a Parliament with 124 seats would require a majority of 63.
As others like
No Right Turn have pointed out, Dunne himself has often been in overhang - were the polls to be translated to votes.
On the past nine polls conducted by DigiPoll for the Herald the United Future Party has scored either zero or 0.1 per cent in five of them. Dunne is expected to keep his Ohariu seat this election but a result like those polls would definitely put him in overhang.
Idiot Savant's long-term answer is to have a list-only proportional system with no threshold.
I don't see proportionality as quite that sacred.
The fear factor being promoted by Dunne and Act over a Maori Party overhang is based on a assumption that it remains an electorate-based party with little aspiration or likelihood of increasing its party vote. In fact it is running a two-ticks campaign and is likely to gain more party vote support on November 8.
It has eschewed amy accommodation with the Green Party to encourage its electorate supporters to party vote Green.
From four of seven recent DigiPoll surveys of the Maori electorates, the Maori Party is outrating Labour on the party vote in all seats.
PARTY VOTE
Te Tai Tokerau
Labour 34.5 per cent
Maori Party 46.8 per cent
Tamaki Makaurau
Labour 37.5 per cent
Maori Party 41.2 per cent
Waiariki
Labour 33.8 per cent
Maori Party 48.9 per cent.
Te Tai Hauauru
Labour 42.5 per cent
Maori Party 44 per cent
Of course the percentages don't show just how small the numbers are. As at June 30, the numbers enrolled on the Maori roll were just 7.6 per cent of the total number of voters enrolled.
The Maori Party is also going for Party Vote from general electors though its decision not to stand in general seats this time - it did so last time - will be a handicap for it.
It may miss out on potential party votes from general electors.
Party activists say they often hear general-roll voters that they would like to party-vote for the Maori Party but are not enrolled on the Maori roll.
Peter Dunne has a right to raise the issue of the election system but to point the finger of "blame" at the Maori Party for using a system devised to accommodate such overhangs - his included - is a bit of a cheap shot.
