Goodbye Sepuloni continued

So blogger Mickey Savage (aka lawyer and Labour party stalwart Greg Presland) states: http://waitakerenews.blogspot.com/2011/12/bugger.html

A miscount in the Fruitvale School booth obliterated Carmel's advantage and recounting of other booths gave pseudo westie Paula Bennett the thinnest of margins.

A miscount?  Hmm... For, according to the Herald, at http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10773840:

Evidence of dodgy voting has emerged in the battle for Waitakere. A judge has found nine people voted twice and 393 people voted despite not being on the electoral roll.

Given that Ms Sepuloni is now losing by 9 votes, methinks a large part of the issue would be those on the left thinking that no one would notice if they cast a special vote for Ms Sepuloni and then waltzed up on the day to cast a second vote for her in person.

Less a "miscount" than an uncovering of electoral fraud.  Which makes it less than likely that Labour will go down the road of seeking an Electoral Petition.

Goodbye Sepuloni...

Ms Sepuloni was notoriously ungracious as the final count came in 11 votes in her favour.  Now, with the final final vote counted, Ms Bennett emerges the victor with a 9 vote margin.

Will Labour file for an Electoral Petition?  Does it have the funds?  Does David Shearer really want to spend money the party doesn't have on someone who was reportedly in Camp Cunliffe?

Interesting questions, because as Graeme Edgeler reports at http://publicaddress.net/legalbeagle, if Labour were successful in an Electoral Petition, Ms Bennett would be out of parliament and unable to even return on the list.  National, due to a strange quirk in our electoral laws, would lose a seat and be unable to replace Ms Bennett from the list; Labour, having won the Petition, would gain a seat, and proportionality would be out the window.

And then National's asset sales would be off the agenda...

So...  Something to think about, Mr Shearer?

David Shearer hits the Heartlands

So Mr Shearer (my pick for the Labour leadership incidentally) will be spending his Christmas holidays traipsing around the country, attempting to reconnect with middle New Zealand.  Remarkably similar to three years ago, when Mr Goff and his big red bus full of the newly-defeated took their message of rejuvenation to the Heartlands.

Of course, three years ago "the phone was off the hook", as many a political commentator has noted.  Three years on, will it be any different?  The left/right divide may still be remarkably close (National has only one seat majority despite the stratospheric nature of its party vote), but the voters have delivered Labour the emphatic verdict that the party is deemed to be largely irrelevant.

So what can Mr Shearer do to change that?

My hope is he will at least retain the big picture policies that Labour took to the hustings in 2011 - a capital gains tax and an increase in the age of superannuation.  These were policies that sharply differentiated Labour from National, and which most New Zealanders grudgingly agreed were necessary.  If Labour keeps those policies, it sends a message that Labour is serious about confronting the big issues; to suddenly abandon said policies sends only the message that being elected is everything, and such a message is not necessarily one that will endear the party to those New Zealanders who have abandoned Labour in favour of National or the smaller parties (in particular the Greens).

Mr Shearer has said that all Labour policy will come under the microscope.  We shall see which policies end up being surgically removed...