Pupils’ survey of Papanui shows move to Labour

Press, 10 November 1978, Page 4

Pupils’ survey of Papanui shows move to Labour

Labour has gained support in the Papanui electorate, but not enough to win the seat, according to a recent Shirley Boys’ High School survey.

The random survey of 70 householders, done between September 30 and October 18 before the official campaign started, was carried out by a sixthform extension studies group. A Christchurch Teachers’ College political scientist, Mr A. Mcßobie. who helped the pupils with the survey, said that the point to emphasise about it was that it “was not predictive in any way.” “Many changes can take place between when the survey was taken a month ago and the election. It is an indication of the feeling of the electorate at rhe time.” Mr Mcßobie said. Over all. 54.4 per cent of those interviewed said they had voted for National in 1975, but only 42.6 per cent said they would do the same this time Labour would get 37.3 per cent of the surveyed

group’s votes this time, compared wih 33.8 per cent in 1975. Social Credit doubled its support from those surveyed, from 4.4 per cent to 8.8 per cent, but none said they would vote for Values this time: 1.4 ner cent voted Values in 1975. But the pupils said that few people interviewed were in the 18 to 24 agegreup. which held many prospective Values voters. Both the National and Labour candidates were well known in the electorate—72.9 per cent knew about the Labour candidate. and 77.1 per cent about the National candidate—and that was attributed by the pupils to controversies surrounding each man. The Values candidate was known by only 30 per cent of those surveyed, even though he was that partv’s leader. The survey showed about 2 per cent more had voted for National in the last election than the 1975 General Election returns actually record. This, the pupils say, could be

explained by the fact that people forget who they voted for and chose the winner or that they did not want to admit voting for the loser. It seemed that local events did not greatly affect the election, since the main issues influencing votes were national ones. People seemed to vote for parties, instead of candidates. Among those surveyed, unemployment was the main national issue this year, followed by the economy, abortion, unions, and the cost of living. Law and order was the lowest ranking of 21 issues. The effects of the proposed rubbish dump concerned those surveyed far more than any other local issue, followed bv schools, drainage. unemployment, and dissatisfaction with representatives. Finally. 10.2 per cent of those surveyed said they did not know how they would vote this year. Those “floating voters” were obviously important to the final result.