While Jacinda Ardern is streaks ahead of the competition in the likeability rankings, it’s the person in second place causing surprise.
More than 218,000 New Zealanders have used TVNZ’s Vote Compass tool to see where they fit in the political spectrum.
Participants were asked to rate each of the party leaders, on a scale of zero to 10, with zero being not likeable at all and 10 being very likeable.
The rankings – average scores
Jacinda Ardern, Labour, 6.8
David Seymour, ACT, 4.4
Judith Collins, 3.8, National
Marama Davidson, Green, 3.7 and James Shaw, Green, 3.7
Winston Peters, NZ First, 3
Geoff Simmons, TOP, 2.7
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, Maori Party, 2.6
John Tamihere, Maori Party, 2.4
Leighton Baker, New Conservative, 1.9
The rise of Seymour
One standout from the results is ACT Party Leader David Seymour.
While he’s more than two points behind the Labour leader Jacinda Ardern, he’s beating National leader Judith Collins.
Auckland University Associate Professor Jennifer Lees-Marshment says it’s a surprise result.
“I think it's reflective of David going on Dancing with the Stars which raised attention to him and his party,” she said.
“Consolidating that with something like the End of Life Choice Bill, so that's given him some substance and stardust of his own.”
A warning for National
National’s leader Judith Collins scored just above her Green Party counterparts in the likeability ratings, with a score of 3.8.
In 2017, Bill English scored a 5.2. Lees-Marshment says the numbers will be a warning sign for the party.
“They're losing support not just from the general population, but actually their own supporters.”
A further breakdown of the Vote Compass results show National Party supporters are giving David Seymour a high score, alongside Judith Collins.
“They need to do something major to reconnect with voters in the few weeks we’ve got let of the election campaign.”
To take part in Vote Compass, a survey tool which shows users how their views match up with party policies, go to the Vote Compass page.
Developed by a team of social and statistical scientists from Vox Pop Labs, Vote Compass is a civic engagement application offered in New Zealand exclusively by TVNZ. The findings are based on 85 915 respondents who participated in Vote Compass from August 30, 2020 to September 20, 2020
Unlike online opinion polls, respondents to Vote Compass are not pre-selected. Similar to opinion polls, however, the data are a non-random sample from the population and have been weighted in order to approximate a representative sample. Vote Compass data have been weighted by gender, age, education, language, region and past vote to ensure the sample’s composition reflects that of the actual population of New Zealand according to census data and other population estimates.
SHARE ME