Maori Party gains support

A Marae-Digipoll has good news for the Maori Party, at Labour’s expense. It polled 1,000 Maori and found 39.7% for Labour and 38.2% for the Maori Party.

What is of more use though is the breakdown into 660 on the Maori roll and 340 on the general roll. Now we do not know for sure how Maori voted on the general roll, except post-election polls. But we do know how Maori on the Maori roll voted.

Over the seven seats, at the last election Labour got 54.6% of the party vote and the Maori Party got 27.7%. This poll finds, on the Maori roll, that the Maori Party is up from 27.7% to 48.5% and Labour is down from 54.6% to 34.3%.

While this poll is on the party vote, not the electorate vote (which was even more favourable to the MP at the 2005 election), it certainly strongly suggests the Maori Party will pick up more than it’s current four seats, and maybe all seven.