The National Party is being called pig-headed right now, five days out from the election. It is doing its utmost to leave to chance the most terrifying left-wing socialist coalition ever in NZ obtaining power. It is obvious to voters: the election is very close. To maximise the chances of the right coalition remaining in power, New Zealanders must split their votes. https://goodoil.news/harry-mowbray-split-the-vote-campaign-doesnt-breach-electoral-law-2/
Political friends are pointing out the facts to the National Party and the voting public. The big guns are imploring them. If you want a centre-right government and beat the dangerous left bloc, the candidate vote needs to go to National in most electorates and the party vote either to the ACT Party or the New Zealand First Party. It’s a simple numbers game.
Vote Smart 2026 to save the country.
Maurice Williamson, Don Brash, Richard Prebble and others, like Cameron Slater, Penny Marie and Ashley Church have been explaining the math in many different ways, and the advantages of splitting votes in this particular election. https://goodoil.news/make-both-your-votes-count-with-maurice-williamson-penny-marie-paul-mathews/#google_vignette
The National Party MPs and members are pig-headed. Local National MPs, Christopher Luxon as National’s Leader and even Nicola Willis, NZ’s finance minister who you would have thought at least knew that two and two made four, surprisingly do not appear to add this up. They will not budge in their stance even with exceptionally clear articles beseeching them to think of the country. There are unmistakable graphs and poor polls in a tight election, but the ‘two ticks blue’ intonation continues ad infinitum from the National Party. They are so blinded by their own importance, they are calling the strategy ‘stupid’, ‘disappointing’, and a ‘deliberate attempt to confuse voters’ – and Luxon’s forthright criticism goes as far as calling it ‘an insanely stupid idea’. Of course, they are only promoting this to try to protect those on National’s party List, while blatantly ignoring they won’t get any because their polling is so poor.
John Key, the former PM, is also getting in on the action advising everyone not to listen to the numbers purported by the strategic voting proponents, warning people not to do something they ‘think is clever’ that is actually ‘the opposite of clever’. He wants Kiwis to ignore the split vote and give both votes to National.
People are horrified National might hand NZ a four-headed left coalition of a socialist Labour Party, the crazy and woke, Greens, hard left, te Pāti Māori and tax happy Opportunity. It is impossible to imagine them working together around the cabinet table. It would be a political nightmare and very bad for the country.
In the Herald on Sunday, 1 November, Brash rejected National’s claims that the Vote Smart advertisements were designed to confuse voters: “The advertisements published in my name do not seek to confuse anyone. Indeed, they attempt to provide clarity via basic mathematics and set out a straightforward consequence of the MMP rules as they currently operate.
“The National Party has alleged that the Vote Smart 2026 campaign with which I am involved is a deliberate attempt to confuse voters.
“The campaign is actually an attempt to educate right-sided voters on the safest path to getting a National-led coalition back into government”.
By insisting voters tick both the National candidate and party, National’s egotistical stubbornness beggars’ belief. Luxon’s intransigent position of prioritising its own party numbers over maximising total center-right seat overhang count seems fixed.
It’s a high-stakes election and we must have the objective of returning a center-right government. Luxon is a lost cause. Ignore him. The only chance is to reach voters with this message of strategic voting. They are more than ‘clever’ enough. Party vote either NZF or ACT. We have three days.
Send friends and family Ashley Church’s article to centre-right voters: https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2026/08/ashley-church-could-mmp-loophole-return.html?m=1
Or, Christ Trotter’s interview on the Platform: https://goodoil.news/chris-trotters-dire-warning-of-a-centre-left-election-win/
Become a subscriber to the popular centre-right Good Oil blog to read Cameron Slater’s insightful articles. https://goodoil.news/three-polls-say-split-your-vote/
