Media release; The votes are in and Muffin Break’s Bean Poll does it again! Its track record for accurately predicting the winner of each general election now stands at 100%.

The National and Green parties certainly had something to celebrate on Saturday night, but neither of them should have been surprised.

After all, Muffin Break’s pre-election Bean Poll, held prior to every general election since 2002, accurately predicted National would win the election by a huge margin, and also that the Green Party would make big gains this year.

The Bean Poll had the Greens on 17% support in the first week of polling, but it slipped back to 14% by the final week. On election night, the party came away with a record 10.62% of the vote, which corresponds to 13 seats in Parliament, up considerably on the nine seats it held going into the election.

Special votes, which traditionally go in the Green Party’s favour, are still to be counted.

The prediction of the gains made by the Green Party adds further credibility to Muffin Break’s Bean Poll, which has now accurately predicted the winning party all four times it has been held in the month prior to each general election.

With close to 60,000 online votes and coffee beans cast at Muffin Break’s 35 stores from Whangarei to Dunedin, the Bean Poll put National on 43% (actual preliminary votes 47.99%), the Labour Party on 30% (27.13%), the Green Party on 14% (10.62%), and the ACT Party on 5% (1.07%). Other parties, which included NZ First, made up the remaining 8% (13.2%).

Muffin Break General Manager Garry Croft says politicians weren’t the only ones on the edge of their seats on Saturday night.

“With a track record like the Muffin Break Bean Poll has enjoyed since 2002, we were eager to see how accurate it would be this election. Thankfully it didn’t take long for the results to start rolling in and it was fairly evident early on that the National Party would come out on top and that the Greens would have something big to celebrate, just as they did in the Bean Poll,” he says.

Mr Croft says he’s delighted so many New Zealanders took part in the Muffin Break Bean Poll, making it the latest pre-election poll in the country.

“Our customers, and New Zealand’s politicians, can rest assured that the Bean Poll will be back again in 2014, giving everyone a glimpse at how the numbers are likely to stack up on election night.”

For more information, visit www.muffinbreak.co.nz or check out Muffin Break’s Facebook page here.