Did Goff resign too soon?
The election may have ended at 7pm last Saturday – but political “aftershocks” may yet change the Parliamentary landscape,
.
.
As the Dominion Post story states, “National could theoretically lose up to two seats on special votes and its majority could be affected“.
After the 2008 general election, Cam Calder (number 58 on the National Party List), became an MP based on election night provisional results.
However, a subsequent seat re-allocation due to counting of special votes reduced National’s entitlement (by one seat) in the final count, preventing Calder from entering Parliament.
Instead, the counting of specal votes gave the Greens an extra seat, and Kennedy Graham became an MP.
Fast-forward to the 2011 general election: If Te Ururoa Flavell’s coup succeeds, and the Maori Party chooses not to give Supply and Confidence to the National-Dunne-ACT coalition – then matters could get very interesting, very quickly.
It would be bleak irony if National lost it’s election night wafer-thin majority; the Maori Party chose not to support a second John Key administration; and a Labour-led coalition became a new reality. In which case, Phil Goff’s resignation was somewhat “premature”.
Irony indeed if, having stepped down, one of the two Davids became the new Prime Minister – on the back of Phil Goff’s hard work and victory.
.
.
Politics – reality TV at it’s finest.
.
.
Phil Goff was never meant to be PM. Apart from David Shearer, the others were only thinking of their political futures and refused to get rid of Phil Goff earlier this year. Ten months would have been sufficient to get Labour going in election year. But they waited for Phil Goff to get his head chopped off, but he actually surprised everybody by how well he performed in the last few weeks.
If the Maori Party does not support the National govt, and the Greens get that extra seat as expected and National loses one member to the Speaker’s chair – no deliberative vote, just a casting one – the future is interesting. You do the maths? 61 seats to ?
Yes, Phil resigned too soon! There’s no question about that, and I am bitterly disappointed that he and Annette gave in to media pressure…
Right on Deborah
LOL!
Keep dreaming the dream Frank. Perhap a bus driven by a bunch of Circus clowns, (otherwise known as the Labour party executive), will swerve into Parliament and take out John Key as well.
Oh dear, Gosman! You’ve just described the ACT Party!!
Too late Frank. I already made that joke at the expense of Labour. Admittedly it would have worked just as well with ACT but all you are doing now is copying me
Idiot.
Lost your sense of humour in the election result did you Tom?