25 Nov 2011

National keeps big lead as NZ First inches over 5%

7:46 pm on 25 November 2011

National was still well ahead of Labour in the final polls of the election campaign and New Zealand First has made it over the 5% threshold in one of them.

Support for New Zealand First has been inching up in the polls and Friday's Herald-DigiPoll puts it on 5.2%.

That would get the party led by Winston Peters back into parliament without winning an electorate seat.

However, there is little change for the bigger parties.

In the Herald-DigiPoll, the National Party has risen slightly to 50.9%, the Labour Party is down slightly to 28% and the Green Party is on 11.8%.

ACT is on 1.8% and the Conservative Party on 1.3% while the Maori Party, Mana and United Future are all below 1%.

The poll of 850 voters was taken over six days ending Wednesday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4%.

Two polls released on Thursday also showed National maintaining a big lead over Labour.

The One News-Colmar Brunton poll put National on 50% and Labour on 28%, while the 3 News-Reid Research poll also had National on 50% and Labour was on 26%.

In those two polls, the Greens are the only other party above 5%. New Zealand First and all the other smaller parties are below that threshold.

The margin of error in both television polls is plus or minus 3.1%.

Epsom survey

A Reid Research poll for the National Business Review puts the National Party candidate in Epsom, Paul Goldsmith, ahead of ACT candidate John Banks.

Mr Goldsmith has 46% support in the poll and Mr Banks 37%.

The poll of 500 eligible voters in the electorate has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5%.