A political scientist fears New Zealand's coronavirus-plagued election could attract the lowest voter turnout ever.
There are 40 days until the revised election date on October 17, originally meant to take place this month, and the opposition National Party is yet to launch its campaign.
Victoria University politics lecturer Dr Bryce Edwards told Magic Talk's Road to the Election that people could be switching off.
"There is that fear really that people will turn off and they may not vote," Dr Edwards told host Mitch McCann. "We might be headed for, I think, one of the lower voter turnouts - the lowest ever."
The election was originally meant to take place on September 19 but Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern pushed the date back, due to a resurgence of community COVID-19 cases in Auckland. Dr Edwards predicts a mixture of voters not turning out next month; Labour voters who think they've already won, and National voters believing they've already lost.
According to the latest Newshub-Reid Research poll released in July, National was at 25.1 percent, well below Labour's 60.9 percent.
"We really just need a big contest of ideas now to get people engaged again," Dr Edwards said.
Former MP and United Future leader Peter Dunn, appearing on Magic Talk with Dr Edwards, said Labour had to be careful it doesn't look like it's "assumed" the election result.
"I would have thought that the opportunity was there for them - to lay out the plan for the next three years in detail," Dunne said.
"At the moment, it looks like no-one wants to lay out their plans for fear of scaring the horses."
