An election official watches voting in a polling station in Simferopol on 16 March, 2014.
An election official watches voting in a referendum at a polling station in Simferopol on 16 March, 2014. Reuters

With hardly a month left for the country to go to the polling stations, New Zealand's Labour Party is facing the loss of support from its voters. Labour is the principal challenger of the ruling National Party, and its slide in popular support goes contrary to the hype that it is going to do well in the polls.

The Stuff.co.nz/Ipsos Political Poll survey documented the percentage of latest voter preference for various political parties. The survey put National at 55.1 per cent, whose position is virtually unchanged from July. The Labour Party suffered a big dent as its share sunk to 22.5 per cent and lost 2.4 per cent support. The poll, taken from Aug 9 to 13, concedes a 3.1 per cent margin of error.

The poll elicited the opinion of 1,000 New Zealand residents who are eligible to vote in the elections. If the latest indicators are going to sustain, Labour will lose five seats and its tally will be restricted to 29 and also risk the prospects of many senior MPs.

National Party

The ruling National Party is comfortably perched at the hustings and may amass sufficient seats to govern all alone. It may get 72 seats. The survey puts Greens at 11.3 per cent and the Internet-Mana alliance support at 2.1 per cent.

The big surprise in the pack is Conservatives Party, whose support base jumped to 3.4 per cent and is at par with NZ First.

Today's poll shows a higher proportion of voters who are undecided and they constitute 15.4 per cent of the electorate. Among the leaders, John Key with 54.3 per cent popular vote share is the most preferred prime minister compared to a 12 per cent support for Labour leader David Cunliffe.

National Hurt By Book

But the National Party is in no mood to celebrate and is busy defending itself from the allegations found in a book authored by Nicky Hager. The book raises allegations that the prime minister's office was misused by some staffers by aligning with blogger Cameron Slater in running rude political campaigns against National Party's rivals. Hager's book became ammunition for the Greens and Labour to target the ruling party.

The blogger has threatened legal action against the author. Prime Minister John Key has defended his staffers and accused the author of running a smear campaign against him.