New Zealand

So the debates are seen as a highlight of the campaign, allowing the voting public to see our potential prime ministers up close and unedited, rather than cut down to five-second sound bites (that's what the average is now) or even shorter and more meaningless snippets.

During every election campaign, the leaders of political parties go toe-to-toe in a series debates. Often, they get to fire off a few zingers at each other. But the debates don't seem to have much impact on voting.