NZ Political Polls need to be held to account, to protect our democracy

Ted Johnston, Auckland Mayoral candidate for the New Conservative party has called out Curia for its crooked poll.

“Biased political polls can fix elections and this poll does exactly that” states Ted Johnston.

The recent poll by Ratepayer’s Union -Curia, excluded Ted Johnston, BSc BA LLB, a criminal barrister for 30 years and Coleader of the New Conservative party, (which is always registering in the Nationwide political party polls.) even though he one of the strongest candidates and was 4th most recognised of the candidates in a recent stuff poll.

In the Curia Mayoral poll, 500 people were questioned and asked to choose which of the 5 candidates they would vote for.

It was not possible to vote for anyone else including Mr Johnston. Still 53% did not want any of the 5 candidates presented.

Based on this poll those 5 candidates were held out to be the frontrunners. This is used to help decide who gets invited to debates, and covered by the media.

It was impossible for Ted Johnston to be one of the frontrunners as he was not in the poll. He was unfairly prejudiced and discriminated against by this exclusion, with no reason given.

Political polls claim to represent the opinions of the wider public and be a guide to likely voting behaviour. This sways the public into following the polls and can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. This is why their integrity is so important.

Ted Johnston states “ I have made an official complaint to RANZ ( The research Institute of NZ which overseas political polls in NZ) against this crooked poll run by Curia, “

As stated in the NZ Political polling code

‘The development of the code is in recognition of the fact that reporting of polls can have an impact on how people vote.’

“Inaccurate polls or polls that are reported inaccurately can impact on voting attitudes and behaviours and thus influence the democratic process.’

Ted Johnston states “ It will be interesting to see whether RANZ will do its job, or whether statutes will be needed to ensure integrity, fairness and justice in our political polls.”

“When polls create a false impression assisting some parties and undermine others, that undermines the safety of democratic voting, and our democracy. “

“Curia picked on the wrong person.”

Ted Johnston states, “I stand up to protect the integrity of our polls, our voting system and our democracy. We as New Zealanders believe in fair elections , and will not tolerate biased polls or other corrupt practices which undermine our democracy.”

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