Election Day on Saturday.
More than any other year i've been obsessing over the outcome. I've even endeavoured to read up on the candidates in my area.
So I know who will get my vote for the Ikaroa-Rawhiti seat.
But what about my party vote?It feels like I'll be giving away a gold ticket to Willy Wonka's factory. Or the chance to go on an all night vodka and speed binge with Lemmy.
No prizes for guessing which one I'm more likely to be overly-zealous of.
I basically see this whole election as having to make the best of a bad situation. We've only got a couple bottles of Kristov and the speeds been cut with Ajax. Therefore I'm lining up my shots on a Labour-Green coalition government. I hate Labour, but I'm sickened by National's divisive race policies. There's not enough vodka in the world to get rid of the bitter aftertaste of the Orewa speeches.
The question I'm asking myself is, am I paranoid enough of a National government to party-vote Labour?Or shouldn't I have had that last line off the cistern? I'm hoping the Green Party will pull Labour more to the left, but am I likely to end up with a nosebleed as a consequence? I think ACT are down the toilet. I don't think NZ First will be. You can't kill a vampire.
Then there's the question of the Maori seats and the Maori electoral roll, which I have been enrolled on since I started voting. So I'm obviously a believer in Maori representation in Parliament, preferably free of major party directives. I've done my best to encourage whanaunga to enrol, just for the sake of having more seats in Parliament. Like the Maori Party, I believe that the Maori seats are the way for our people to have better parliamentary representation - the way it was meant to be. I think the Maori Party will get, at the least, 3 of the 7 Maori seats, which is a safe bet. Most of the polls point to them getting a possible 5. But thats if you want to put your faith in the polls.
I feel quite limited in voting choices. Shall I have the shot then the line? Or the line then the shot? Shall I have all my lines now and then get down to the heavy drinking or mix n match it a bit? Do I have to spend all night bogarting the drugs or will someone else come to the party with better gear...?
No matter how much you try to add your own variety, its the same bad quality product with probably much the same results as any other elections. At the end of it all you're left with an empty wallet, some hazy memories and a shitty hangover.
