1978 New Zealand general election

Template:Short description Template:Use New Zealand English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox election

The 1978 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to elect the 39th New Zealand Parliament. It saw the governing National Party, led by Robert Muldoon, retain office, but the opposition Labour Party won the largest share of the vote. Reorganisation of the enrolment system caused major problems with the electoral rolls, which left a legacy of unreliable information about voting levels in this election.

BackgroundEdit

The National Party had won a resounding victory in the 1975 elections, taking fifty-five of the eighty-seven seats and ousting the Labour Party from government. Labour had been led by Bill Rowling, who had assumed the post of Prime Minister on the death in office of the popular Norman Kirk. Labour won the remaining thirty-two seats in that election, with no other parties gaining entry to Parliament.

Labour's Rowling had been criticised by many for inadequately countering Muldoon's confrontational style, and was widely perceived as "weak". Following Labour's defeat, there had been speculation about replacing Rowling as leader of the party, but Rowling retained his position. Gradually, as some people wearied of Muldoon's style, Rowling's more reserved manner was held up as an asset rather than a weakness, and Labour began to gain a certain amount of traction again. Economic troubles hurt the government, and its reputation had fallen. Muldoon remained a powerful opponent, however, and was regarded as a strong campaigner.

Not long before the 1978 election, a by-election in Rangitikei caused considerable comment when it introduced a third party to Parliament: Bruce Beetham, leader of the Social Credit Party. Although other parties dismissed Social Credit's success as a fluke, Beetham predicted a great future for the party.

MPs retiring in 1978Edit

Five National MPs and three Labour MPs intended to retire at the end of the 38th Parliament.

Party		Name	Electorate	Term of office	Date announced
rowspan=5 style="background-color: Template:Party color" \|	National	Peter Gordon	Clutha	Template:Centre	28 October 1977<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Allan McCready		Manawatu	Template:Centre	8 August 1977<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Ed Latter		Marlborough	Template:Centre	18 August 1978<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Harry Lapwood		Rotorua	Template:Centre	18 August 1977<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Ray La Varis		Taupo	Template:Centre	4 November 1977<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
rowspan=3 style="background-color: Template:Party color" \|	Labour	Martyn Finlay	Henderson	Template:Centre	25 May 1977<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Roger Drayton		St Albans	Template:Centre	8 September 1977<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Paddy Blanchfield		West Coast	Template:Centre	16 July 1977<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Sir Stanley Whitehead MP for Nelson had announced he would retire at the end of the term in 1978, due to ill-health, but he died on 9 January 1976 triggering a by-election instead.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Opinion pollingEdit

File:Opinion Polling for the 1978 General New Zealand Election.png

<ref name="pollednz">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Poll	Date<ref group="nb" name="dates">These are the survey dates of the poll, or if the survey dates are not stated, the date the poll was released.</ref>	National	Labour	Socred	Values	Lead
Poll		class="unsortable" style="color:inherit;background:Template:Party color; width:60px;"\|	class="unsortable" style="color:inherit;background:Template:Party color; width:60px;"\|	class="unsortable" style="color:inherit;background:Template:Party color; width:60px;"\|	class="unsortable" style="color:inherit;background:Template:Party color; width:60px;"\|
1978 election result	25 Nov 1978	39.82	40.41	16.07	2.41	0.59
TVNZ Heylen	18 Nov 1978	38	39	20	4	1
NBR	1 Nov 1978	44	35	17	3	9
TVNZ Heylen	28 Oct 1978	45	38	14	3	7
TVNZ Heylen	30 Sep 1978	44	36	17	3	8
NBR	1 Sep 1978	44	35	16	4	9
TVNZ Heylen	15 Aug 1978	46	39	11	4	7
TVNZ Heylen	15 Jul 1978	46	39	12	3	7
NBR	1 Jul 1978	47	36	14	3	11
TVNZ Heylen	15 Jun 1978	45	37	15	4	8
TVNZ Heylen	15 May 1978	43	38	16	4	5
NBR	1 May 1978	40	37	16	4	3
TVNZ Heylen	15 Apr 1978	39	38	18	5	1
TVNZ Heylen	15 Mar 1978	43	33	18	5	10
NBR	1 Mar 1978	41	31	22	5	7
TVNZ Heylen	15 Feb 1978	45	35	14	6	7
NBR	1 Jan 1978	45	37	13	5	8
TVNZ Heylen	15 Dec 1977	47	39	8	6	8
NBR	1 Nov 1977	48	37	9	5	11
TVNZ Heylen	15 Oct 1977	47	40	8	6	7
TVNZ Heylen	15 Sep 1977	46	41	7	6	5
TVNZ Heylen	15 Aug 1977	48	38	9	6	10
TVNZ Heylen	15 Jun 1977	48	43	4	5	5
TVNZ Heylen	15 May 1977	47	40	8	5	7
TVNZ Heylen	15 Feb 1977	46	37	10	8	9
TVNZ Heylen	15 Jun 1976	48	39	8	5	9

Electoral changesEdit

ProblemsEdit

In 1975 several reforms had been made to the electoral system. These included combining the re-enrolment process with the taking of the 1976 census and replacing existing Justice Department registrars with electorate officers appointed from Post Office Staff. They would work in conjunction with Statistics Department and Electoral Office staff, and at the same time, a switch would be made from a manual to a computerised system.

A report completed in 1979 found that there had been poor liaison between the various departments involved, staff shortages and problems with the computer system. However, the main problem arose from the decision to combine re-enrolment with the 1976 census. Many voters had been confused by the need to re-enrol only a year after the previous election, and many had not bothered to fill out their forms. Census staff had not been given the authority to insist on the card being completed.Template:Sfn

To avoid disenfranchising a significant portion of the electorate, the Chief Electoral Officer decided just to carry forward many old voter registrations in the hope that duplications and outdated enrolments would be purged later. However, not enough staff were provided to complete that in time, and by the time that the rolls closed, 35,000 forms remained unprocessed.

It has been estimated that as many as 460,000 enrolments may have been outdated or duplicates. Many voters (even candidates) found themselves enrolled in the wrong electorate or off the roll completely, and others were enrolled in multiple electorates or several times in the same electorate. That means that accurate figures for electoral turnout are impossible to determine, and other figures may not be reliable.Template:Sfn

Electoral redistributionEdit

The 1977 electoral redistribution was the most overtly political since the Representation Commission had been established by an amendment to the Representation Act in 1886, initiated by Muldoon's National Government.Template:Sfn That a large number of people failed to fill out an electoral re-registration card had little practical effect for the electoral redistribution for people on the general roll, but it transferred Māori to the general roll if the card was not handed in. Together with a northward shift of New Zealand's population, that resulted in five new electorates having to be created in the upper part of the North Island.Template:Sfn

The electionEdit

The election was held on 25 November. There were 2,489,510 people officially registered to vote in the elections, making the election the first one in which there were more than two million registered voters. However, the electoral roll in 1978 was significantly out of date and contained numerous duplicate entries. The cause of this confusion was a major redistribution of electoral boundaries, which had been implemented the year before. The actual number of potential voters is estimated to have been about 2,100,000, and actual turnout is estimated to have been about 80% (as compared to the official turnout of only 68.70%), slightly lower than the turnout for the previous election.

Summary of resultsEdit

The 1978 election saw the National Party win fifty-one seats in parliament, a majority of several seats. This allowed it to retain power. The Labour Party won forty seats. The Social Credit Party retained the Rangitikei seat, which it had won in a by-election shortly before the election. No other parties won seats, and there were no successful independent candidates.

While National won a majority of seats in parliament, it did not actually win a majority of the vote. Labour received the highest number of votes, winning slightly more than forty percent. National, by contrast, won slightly less than forty percent. Social Credit, despite winning only one seat, actually received around sixteen percent of the vote. The election night result had National with more seats, but many seats had small majorities and it was conceivable that if special votes overturned enough electorates Labour could form a government.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Ultimately this did not eventuate however.

While the Template:NZ electorate link electorate was initially won by Malcolm Douglas (Labour), the result was overturned by the High Court and Winston Peters (National) became the MP for Hunua.Template:Sfn

Detailed resultsEdit

File:NewZealandElectorates1978.png

Party totalsEdit

File:1978 nz parliament.svg
Party		Candidates	Total votes	Percentage	Seats won	Change
Template:Party name with colour	92	680,991	39.82	51	-4
Template:Party name with colour	92	691,076	40.41	40	+8
Template:Party name with colour	92	274,756	16.07	1	+1
Template:Party name with colour	92	41,220	2.41	0	±0
Template:Party name with colour	1	22	0.00	-	±0
Template:Party name with colour	53	22,130	1.29	0	±0
	Total	421	1,710,173		92	+5

Votes summaryEdit

Template:Bar box

Results by electorateEdit

<section begin="Electorate results" />The tables below shows the results of the 1978 general election:

Key

Template:Party index link Template:Party index link Template:Party index link

Template:NZ electorate result start |-

|colspan=8 style="background-color:#FFDEAD" | General electorates

| Hauraki
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center; background-color:#ececec;" | New electorate
| style="background-color:Template:Party color;" |
| style="text-align:center;background-color:Template:New Zealand National Party/meta/shading;" | Leo Schultz
| style="text-align:right;" | 2,019
| style="background-color:Template:Party color;" |
| style="text-align:center;" | Gordon Miller

|colspan=8 style="background-color:#FFDEAD" | Māori electorates

|- Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold |} Table footnotes: Template:Reflist<section end="Electorate results" />

MapEdit

File:NewZealandElectorates1978-Labeled.png

Summary of changesEdit

For details about the winners of each individual electorate, see the article on the 39th Parliament.

Electoral redistributions:
- A major reconfiguration of electorates and their boundaries occurred in 1977. This resulted in twenty-two electorates being dissolved and twenty-seven new electorates being formed (a net gain of five electorates).
- The seats of Bay of Plenty, Coromandel, Egmont, Franklin, Grey Lynn, Henderson, Hobson, Hutt, Karori, Manukau, Oamaru, Petone, Piako, Raglan, Rakaia, Riccarton, Rodney, Ruahine, South Canterbury, Stratford, Waitemata, and Wigram ceased to exist.
- The seats of Albany, Ashburton, Bay of Islands, East Cape, Eastern Hutt, Fendalton, Hauraki, Helensville, Horowhenua, Hunua, Kaimai, Kaipara, Matamata, Ohariu, Papakura, Papatoetoe, Pencarrow, Rangiriri, Selwyn, Taranaki, Tarawera, Te Atatu, Waipa, Waitakere, Waitaki, Waitotara, and Yaldhurst came into being.
Seats captured:
- By Labour: Hastings, Lyttelton, Manurewa, Palmerston North, Papanui, Taupo, and Western Hutt were captured from National.
- By National: None
- By Social Credit: None
Seats transferred from departing MPs to new MPs:
- The seats of Clutha, Manawatu, Marlborough, Pakuranga, and Rotorua, all held by departing National MPs, were won by new National candidates.
- The seats of Dunedin North, Island Bay, St Albans, and West Coast, all held by departing Labour MPs, were won by new Labour candidates.

NotesEdit

Template:Reflist