New Zealand's Māori Party that represents the major segment of the indigenous residents and old community of this remote island has launched a campaign to change the official name of the commonwealth country to Aotearoa, its name in the 'te reo Māori' language.
The petition also calls on New Zealand's parliament to restore the Māori names for all towns, cities, and place names, according to a statement announcing the petition this month.
In response to this current debate, a well-known New Zealand's TV channel 1News Colmar Brunton has conducted a survey in which it has asked people of New Zealand if they think that they should change the name of their country to Aotearoa or not.
The poll entitled: "What do you think the pacific country should officially be called?" was held by various reporters and renowned anchors as well as using electronic voting machines.
According to this recent poll, nearly 58 percent of Kiwis wanted to keep the name 'New Zealand', while approximately 31 percent wanted to see the name of the country changed to 'Aotearoa New Zealand'. Moreover, only 9 percent wanted 'New Zealand' dropped completely for 'Aotearoa'.
Notably, New Zealand from time to time receives from the public numerous petitions addressed to its parliament appealing for this change.
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