Christian Coalition (New Zealand)
Christian Coalition | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Co-leaders | Graeme Lee Graham Capill |
Founded | 1995 |
Dissolved | May 1997 |
Ideology | Christian democracy |
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/39/Christian_Politics_NZ.svg/400px-Christian_Politics_NZ.svg.png)
The Christian Coalition was an Evangelical Christian political party operating in New Zealand. It was an alliance of the now-defunct Christian Heritage Party and the Christian Democrats, New Zealand's two theologically conservative Christian parties. The Christian Coalition did not meet with the success that it hoped for, and was eventually dissolved.
The Coalition was established for the purpose of contesting the
In terms of policy, the Coalition generally pursued goals located somewhere between those of the Christian Democrats and Christian Heritage. At times, there appeared to be dispute between the two groups, with the Christian Democrats pursuing a more moderate path and Christian Heritage insisting upon a hard line. There were also complaints from the Christian Democrats that Christian Heritage was dominating the Coalition, and that Graham Capill (leader of Christian Heritage and Co-leader of the Coalition as a whole) was running the party "autocratically".[citation needed]
Despite the internal differences within the party, however, the Coalition steadily rose in the polls. As the election drew closer, some polls showed the Coalition passing the critical five percent threshold. As the result, the party came under intense media scrutiny and was criticized by its opponents. Rather than assisting the party, however, the increased media coverage appeared to damage its chances, with many people expressing worry about the more extreme elements of the party. The Coalition claimed that the media coverage about it was biased, saying that the news media set out to "falsely" portray them as extremist.[citation needed] Opponents of the Coalition, however, said that the intense media scrutiny penetrated an artificial layer of reasonableness that the Coalition had adopted, revealing the party's allegedly true character. Whatever the case, the party's polling dropped below the five percent threshold once again.[citation needed]
In the election itself, the Christian Coalition gained 4.33% of the vote, ranking sixth.[1] It would have needed around 13,000 more votes to enter parliament. None of the Coalition's thirty-seven electoral constituency candidates were successful.[citation needed]
In May 1997, the Christian Coalition disbanded, with the Christian Democrats and Christian Heritage going their own separate ways. The Christian Democrats later "secularised" themselves, removing the explicitly religious nature of their party while keeping the same policy outlook. The resultant party,
Christian Heritage remained an independent party, but did not meet with the same success that it did while part of the Coalition. At the
Electoral results
Election | # of party votes | % of party vote | # of seats won |
Government/opposition? |
---|---|---|---|---|
1996
|
89,716 | 4.33 | 0 / 120 |
Not in Parliament |
See also
References
- ^ "Part I - Summary of Party List and Electorate Candidate Seats" (PDF), Election Results, New Zealand Electoral Commission, 1997, archived from the original (PDF) on 8 November 2023
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