Andrew Little elected Leader of Labour Party
In a press conference held on Tuesday in the Labour Party Caucus room at Parliament, it was announced Andrew Little had been voted in as Leader of the Labour party.
The first two rounds of counting eliminated Nania Mahuta and David Parker, leaving Grant Robertson against Little. Caucus and party member votes favoured Grant Roberston, but a strong vote from union affiliates decided the vote for Little.
Andrew Little was elected by a majority in the third round of a preferential four-way Electoral College contest. The turnout in the Party section was just under 70% (7% more than in 2013), and Party individual financial membership has increased by over 48% since General Election Day September 20th 2014.
Andrew Little is Labour’s 15th leader in the party’s 98 year history.
The election was administered by Christchurch-based electionz.com, which provides election services worldwide to corporate, local government and NGO clients.
In preparation for the 2017 election, Little said he did not want to run a campaign similar to Prime Minister John Key who he described as running one of “nastiest smear campaigns we’ve seen in New Zealand politics.”
He identified the capital gains tax and the retirement age as two policies that would be under review for the 2017 election.
Little is still yet to identify possible coalition partners and wants to talk to all caucus colleagues about what they wish to offer
Grant Robertson also said that he would not be putting his name forward to lead the Labour Party in the future, this being his third failed attempt.
“The Labour Party congratulates Andrew Little, who has been elected as party leader in a robust and highly democratic process,” says Labour Party President Moira Coatsworth. “Andrew’s leadership will have the full support of the whole Labour Party.”
“Our members, caucus and affiliates had a very strong field of candidates to choose from. Andrew, David, Grant and Nanaia all ran strong campaigns and, collectively, they formed an attractive and compelling face for Labour. Our heartfelt thanks go to them for the positive and uplfting tone of the campaign, and for the personal effort they put in over the past seven weeks since the election was triggered”.
“Andrew has the leadership skills and the vision to win the trust of New Zealanders and take Labour to victory in 2017. I have no doubt he will go on to become a great Labour Prime Minister who builds a stronger, fairer and more sustainable New Zealand.”
HOW LABOUR’S LEADERSHIP ELECTION VOTING SYSTEM WORKS
In Labour’s single round preferential voting system the winner needs to gain the support of a simple majority of the entire Electoral College. That requires all voters to return individual ballot papers detailing the preference votes cast for each of the candidates. The first preference votes cast for each candidate are then aggregated nationally,appropriately weighted according to the strength of vote attached to each voter, across all three sections of the Electoral College. If no candidate gets a simple majority of the Electoral College votes in the first round, the Electoral College result will be recalculated, eliminating the candidate with the lowest percentage of Electoral College and redistributing those votes according to expressed preferences until one candidate exceeds the 50% threshold.
In a press conference held on Tuesday in the Labour Party Caucus room at Parliament, it was announced Andrew Little had been voted in as Leader of the Labour party.
The first two rounds of counting eliminated Nania Mahuta and David Parker, leaving Grant Robertson against Little. Caucus and party...
In a press conference held on Tuesday in the Labour Party Caucus room at Parliament, it was announced Andrew Little had been voted in as Leader of the Labour party.
The first two rounds of counting eliminated Nania Mahuta and David Parker, leaving Grant Robertson against Little. Caucus and party member votes favoured Grant Roberston, but a strong vote from union affiliates decided the vote for Little.
Andrew Little was elected by a majority in the third round of a preferential four-way Electoral College contest. The turnout in the Party section was just under 70% (7% more than in 2013), and Party individual financial membership has increased by over 48% since General Election Day September 20th 2014.
Andrew Little is Labour’s 15th leader in the party’s 98 year history.
The election was administered by Christchurch-based electionz.com, which provides election services worldwide to corporate, local government and NGO clients.
In preparation for the 2017 election, Little said he did not want to run a campaign similar to Prime Minister John Key who he described as running one of “nastiest smear campaigns we’ve seen in New Zealand politics.”
He identified the capital gains tax and the retirement age as two policies that would be under review for the 2017 election.
Little is still yet to identify possible coalition partners and wants to talk to all caucus colleagues about what they wish to offer
Grant Robertson also said that he would not be putting his name forward to lead the Labour Party in the future, this being his third failed attempt.
“The Labour Party congratulates Andrew Little, who has been elected as party leader in a robust and highly democratic process,” says Labour Party President Moira Coatsworth. “Andrew’s leadership will have the full support of the whole Labour Party.”
“Our members, caucus and affiliates had a very strong field of candidates to choose from. Andrew, David, Grant and Nanaia all ran strong campaigns and, collectively, they formed an attractive and compelling face for Labour. Our heartfelt thanks go to them for the positive and uplfting tone of the campaign, and for the personal effort they put in over the past seven weeks since the election was triggered”.
“Andrew has the leadership skills and the vision to win the trust of New Zealanders and take Labour to victory in 2017. I have no doubt he will go on to become a great Labour Prime Minister who builds a stronger, fairer and more sustainable New Zealand.”
HOW LABOUR’S LEADERSHIP ELECTION VOTING SYSTEM WORKS
In Labour’s single round preferential voting system the winner needs to gain the support of a simple majority of the entire Electoral College. That requires all voters to return individual ballot papers detailing the preference votes cast for each of the candidates. The first preference votes cast for each candidate are then aggregated nationally,appropriately weighted according to the strength of vote attached to each voter, across all three sections of the Electoral College. If no candidate gets a simple majority of the Electoral College votes in the first round, the Electoral College result will be recalculated, eliminating the candidate with the lowest percentage of Electoral College and redistributing those votes according to expressed preferences until one candidate exceeds the 50% threshold.
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