On Tuesday, 12 October, Tauranga Girls’ College had an in-school mock election.

In this election, students were allowed to vote for a political party, the same of which ran for government in the proper nationwide elections that were held on Saturday, 14 October.

Each student was advised to vote for which political party their beliefs align with and have an electoral vote. Many students did a quiz in Social Studies where they rated policies but could not see which party promised what. This helped them to come to an informed decision. Students were also given an electoral vote for the area in which they live. Our in-school election saw people from Tauranga, the Bay of Plenty, Coromandel, Rotorua, and Waiariki vote.

Our Mock elections have had an interesting outcome.

In the electoral vote, the winning MPs for each region are:

Tauranga: Jan Tinetti (Labour),

Bay of Plenty: Tom Rutherford (National),

Coromandel: Scott Simpson (National),

Rotorua: Merepeka Raukawa-TAIT (Te Pati Maori), and

Wairiki: Rawiri Waiti (Te Pati Maori).

In total, 12 parties collected votes from students.

There was a tie in the national vote. Both National and Greens gained 29% of student votes. Labour gained 16%, ACT gained 6%, and Te Pāti Māori gained 7%. National’s policies are pretty different from Green’s, yet equal numbers of students voted for both parties. The Green Party’s stance on climate change seems to have been a big factor in its success. The reason the results were unexpected was because of the contrast of beliefs between the parties.

It was an excellent opportunity for students to participate in the mock election and become aware of their rights and responsibilities of living in a representative democracy.