Banks polls badly in key Epsom seat
Former Auckland City mayor John Banks is failing in his bid to win the Epsom electorate for the beleagured Act party.
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Former Auckland City mayor John Banks is failing in his bid to win the Epsom electorate for the beleaguered Act party.
A poll commissioned by the Herald On Sunday shows Mr Banks polling just 18.9% in the electorate, way behind National Party candidate Paul Goldsmith on 32.9%.
Labour Party candidate David Parker polled just 4.3%.
Mr Banks – a former National cabinet minister – was chosen to contest Epsom following the dumping of incumbent electorate MP and Act leader Rodney Hide.
Winning Epsom is seen as a lifeline for Act which has struggled in the polls since former National Party leader Don Brash stage a hostile takeover in April. Act's polling range has improved slightly since Don Brash took over the leadership but it is still only ranging between 1.8%-2.2%. If Mr Banks wins Epsom, that would give Act 2-3 seats (depending on how other parties stack up), but if he fails, Act needs 5% to get any seats at all.
The Herald on Sunday commissioned the Key Research poll of 500 Epsom voters which has a margin error of 4.38%.
The poll showed many voters (41.5%) were undecided about which electoral candidate to support but most had decided where their party vote would go with only 10% undecided.
According to the HoS poll, 67.6% plan to vote National and just 5.7% will give Act their party vote, less than those (9.7%) planning to support the Labour Party.
NBR staff
Mon, 10 Oct 2011
Mon, 10 Oct 2011
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Banks polls badly in key Epsom seat
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