'Dirty tactics' in Te Tai Tokerau by-election

Accusations of lying and dirty tactics flew in a on-air debate this morning between the three leading candidates in the Te Tai Tokerau by-election.

Voting will be held on Saturday after independent MP Hone Harawira resigned from Parliament so he could contest the seat, which he won for the Maori Party in 2008, under the banner of his new Mana Party.

Mr Harawira, Labour list MP Kelvin Davis and Maori Party contender Solomon Tipene took their gloves off during a Radio New Zealand debate.

Mr Davis accused the other candidates of being all talk.

"They don't have the solutions," he said.

Mr Harawira didn't take that lying down, reminding voters Mr Davis was already in Parliament on the Labour list so they wouldn't get an additional MP much by voting for him.

"A vote for Kelvin won't achieve anything."

Mr Harawira said while Labour Party leader Phil Goff had ruled out working with him he understood that position was being undermined by others in the Labour caucus.

"Rubbish", Mr Davis retorted before launching into a harangue accusing Mr Harawira of dirty tactics and untruths.

"We are not going to work with Hone because he can't be trusted," he said.

Mr Tipene piped up that he had as strong a chance of winning as the other two men.

Last Monday a Maori TV Native Affairs poll put support for Mr Harawira at 41 percent with Mr Davis only one percentage point behind, while Mr Tipene scored 15 percent.

The Maori Party's own polling put their man's support at 35.2 percent.

"It will go down to the wire," Mr Tipene said.

He accused the other parties of creating "distractions" and not focussing on issues. Labour, he argued, made big promises about education, but had closed schools in the electorate.

This was hotly denied by Mr Davis and Mr Harawira hoed in saying that issue was valid and had been raised by voters.

Mr Davis said the kind of arguments Mr Harawira made showed why he did poorly in the Native Affairs' poll trust rankings.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister John Key has already picked a winner: "I think there's a pretty good chance Kelvin is going to win it" he said last week.

Kelvyn Alp representing OurNZ Party and the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party candidate Herbert Maki are also standing.

Mr Harawira, who won Te Tai Tokerau for the Maori Party in 2008 with 12,019 votes, forced the by-election when he resigned from Parliament last month. In second place was Mr Davis who got 5711 votes.

In February, he left the Maori Party saying its relationship with the Government was too cosy, and he wanted a seat in Parliament as leader of the newly-formed Mana Party.

The northern arm of the Ratana movement held a "hikoi 4 Hone" on Friday and Saturday, but the bus for the tour of the electorate was hardly full.

Some members of the branch of the church say Mr Harawira fulfils a prophecy.