General elections were held in the Cook Islands in September 1974 to elect 22 MPs to the Cook Islands Parliament. The elections were won by the Cook Islands Party, which won 14 seats and 63.6% of the vote. The Democratic Party won 8 seats and 36.4% of the vote.
The Parliament of the Cook Islands is the legislature of the Cook Islands. Originally established under New Zealand’s United Nations mandate it became the national legislature on independence in 1965.
The Cook Islands Party is a nationalist political party in the Cook Islands. It was the first political party founded in the Cook Islands, and one of the two major parties of the islands' politics since 1965.
The Democratic Party is a liberal political party in the Cook Islands. As a result of the 2018 Cook Islands election, it is currently the largest party in the Cook Islands Parliament.
During the election the Democratic Party introduced "flying voters", chartering an Air Nauru Boeing 727 to fly voters from New Zealand to Rarotonga to vote. [1] Voters paid their own fares, and the flights were open to all regardless of party affiliation. [1] The tactic was copied by the government at the next election, though with public money.
The Boeing 727 is an American midsized, narrow-body three-engined jet aircraft built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes from the early 1960s to 1984. It can carry 149 to 189 passengers and later models can fly up to 2,700 nautical miles (5,000 km) nonstop. Intended for short and medium-length flights, the 727 can use relatively short runways at smaller airports. It has three Pratt & Whitney JT8D engines below the T-tail, one on each side of the rear fuselage with a center engine that connects through an S-duct to an inlet at the base of the fin. The 727 is the only Boeing trijet, as a commercial design entering production.
New Zealand is a sovereign island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses—the North Island, and the South Island —and around 600 smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres (600 mi) south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal, fungal, and plant life. The country's varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, while its most populous city is Auckland.
Rarotonga is the most populous island of the Cook Islands, with a population of 10,572, out of the country's total resident population of 14,974. Captain John Dibbs, master of the colonial brig Endeavour, is credited as the European discoverer on 25 July 1823, while transporting the missionary Rev. John Williams.
