Praying on voters

Right wing “Christians” in New Zealand have had a very hard time ever since MMP was introduced. They just can't get themselves elected not matter what they do.

That's unlikely to change. The latest version of a pan-“Christian” party couldn't even get their announcement organised.

One “Christian” party, associated with an egomaniacal TV preacher, has decided to fold and form a new party with a right wing Catholic MP as its co-leader. However, the fact that leadership would be shared with the leader of the TV preacher's former party, came as a surprise to the MP.

The MP defected from the party he'd been part of, and whose Party List brought him into Parliament, because he opposed the so-called “anti-smacking” bill. Then he missed the vote in Parliament that passed the law. Despite proclaiming himself an independent, he gave his proxy vote to the conservative National Party, declaring he wanted to be its 49th MP.

You might get the idea that the MP is a bit of an idiot, and I'd be hard-pressed to find any reason to disagree with you. This promises to be a great political party, as it also will likely involve a disgraced MP who is facing bribery and corruption allegations. Even the leader of the TV preacher's former party had his unsavoury personal issues exposed to the nation in the last election.

Assuming they don't win any electorate seats (which is unlikely at this stage), they'd need to win at least five percent of the popular vote nationwide. Yet the best that fundamentalist “Christians” have ever done in New Zealand was 4.3 percent in the 1996 election, and that was with leaders who, at the time, seemed much more upstanding and credible (though one of them was later convicted of sexual abuse of a child).

Moreover, any votes the party receives will come from the other right wing parties, which could help Labour in a tight contest. Put another way, people voting for this new party will not only throw their votes away, more than likely they'll end up helping their enemies instead.

So, you almost have to feel sorry for these particlar right wing voters. No matter what they do, they're damned, as it were. And that will be the answer to the prayers of the centre and centre-left.