Christian Coalition (New Zealand)
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Christian Coalition logo
The Christian Coalition was a Christian political party operating in New Zealand. It was an alliance of the Christian Heritage Party and the Christian Democrats, New Zealand's two largest 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 1996 election, which was the first to be held using the new mixed member proportional (MMP) voting system. Under MMP, it would not be necessary for the party to win any electorate seats - it merely needed to gain more than five percent of the national vote.
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 of the Coalition as a whole) was running the party "autocratically".
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. 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 claims that the media coverage about it was biased, saying that the news media set out to falsely portray them as dangerous fanatics. Opponents of the Coalition, however, say that the intense media scrutiny penetrated an artificial layer of reasonableness that the Coalition had adopted, revealing the party's true character. Whatever the case, the party's polling dropped below the five percent threshold once again.
In the election itself, the Christian Coalition gained 4.33% of the vote, ranking sixth. It would have needed around 13,000 more votes to enter parliament. None of the Coalition's thirty-seven electorate candidates were successful.
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, Future New Zealand, merged with the United Party to form today's United Future New Zealand. Christian Heritage remains an independent party, but has not met with the same success that it did while part of the Coalition.