Jimungo’s first ‘Pulse of the Nation’ shows widening gap: National: 57.2% - Labour: 24.4%

6,000 players give their verdict with minor parties
failing to make 5% threshold

AUCKLAND, 9 July 2008 - Jimungo, the company that runs Telecom Virtual Rugby, has today announced the results of the first ‘Pulse of the Nation’, an online competition that will run every two weeks right up to the 2008 New Zealand General Election. The competition surpassed Jimungo’s initial projections with 6,000 participants visiting www.pulseofthenation.co.nz over the last 14 days.

The online competition appears to be reinforcing surveys, with National opening up a huge 32 point margin over Labour, and none of the minor parties making the 5% threshold.

The results are as follows:

Pulse of the Nation Round 1, Final Results:

Jimungo’s Virtual Electoral Officer Craig Neilson says “The popularity of the game this early in the competition, and months out from the real election, has pleasantly surprised us. The 6000 players who signed up included some of the political leaders themselves, such as Rodney Hide and Peter Dunn.”

Players visit www.pulseofthenation.co.nz each round to place a virtual vote for one of the political parties such as Labour, National, Greens, NZ First, Maori, United Future, Act, etc. The total votes are then aggregated to produce an outcome for each virtual election, with participants receiving points for accurate predictions.

In a similar vein to other Jimungo communities such as Telecom Virtual Rugby, players of ‘Pulse of the Nation’ compete against friends and family, winning prizes, such as an iPod Touch. Individual political preferences are kept private and confidential at all times.

About Jimungo Jimungo runs the internationally acclaimed Telecom Virtual Rugby, which has more than 144,000 players signed up to the recently completed 2008 Rebel Sport Super 14 season. Jimungo is also the creator of Jimungo Netball and Jimungo League. More information at: www.jimungo.co.nz

ENDS

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