Negative Activists Play Fast And Loose With The Facts

The anti-MMP lobby has run a campaign based on scaremongering and deception', says electoral reform campaigner Philip Temple. 'This can be seen in three key aspects of their campaign.'

'1. They spread alarm about political instability and rogue small parties just when MMP is set to deliver the first genuinely majority government in decades. Their claims are distorted and unrealistic.

2. They promote a false option, describing SM as the 'sensible middle' between First Past the Post (FPP) and MMP. MMP already occupies the middle ground as a compromise between FPP and list systems.

3. They support SM even when referendum polls show this is the voting option with the least support. They are trying to con the public into having another referendum in 2014 that could only be between MMP and FPP. Analysis of the current election polling figures for all parties shows there would be very little difference in the result between an FPP election and an SM election. SM is no more than FPP in drag.

4. SM is mostly used in emerging democracies like Kazahkstan and Lithuania. New Zealand is a grown-up democracy now and the polls show that New Zealanders are about to vote again for a grown-up voting system in MMP.'

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