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Maori Party confident it can win by-election


The Maori Party co-leaders are adamant they can win a by-election against Hone Harawira and are unconcerned he could split the vote.

NZPA
Mon, 09 May 2011

The Maori Party co-leaders are adamant they can win a by-election against Hone Harawira and are unconcerned he could split the vote.

The party has begun the process of selecting a candidate for the Te Tai Tokerau electorate after delegates at hui in Waitangi and Auckland yesterday decided to contest the by-election.

Mr Harawira has said he will resign from Parliament, forcing a by-election in the electorate, but has yet to do so.

He quit the Maori Party in February over its relationship with the Government and is now the independent MP for Te Tai Tokerau.

Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples said today he was confident his party could beat Mr Harawira in a by-election.

"We'll win. The people that came to see us represent iwi leadership...so there is a good following on the ground," he said.

Mr Sharples was unconcerned about Mr Harawira's newly-formed Mana Party splitting the vote in the electorate.

"We are a Maori party. They are not a Maori party, they seem to represent the unions and various other groups.

"We are very straight up, we've always said this -- we're not right, we're not left, we're Maori. And we'll stay with that."

Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia said she had spoken over the weekend to Labour, which had indicated a "keen interest" in standing its own candidate in the by-election.

She said Mr Harawira was most likely to split the Green and Labour votes, "because what he is purporting to do is to represent the interests of the left".

"The Greens do that extremely well in Parliament right now, and I can't see how somebody who has never represented those interests ever in his lifetime is now going to pick up on those interests and represent them here."

Both co-leaders today expressed their disappointment that Mr Harawira's mother Titewhai Harawira hurled abuse at those attending the hui at Te Tii marae.

Party president Pem Bird yesterday told NZPA that Mrs Harawira tried to disrupt the hui.

"She chose to interject, talk over the top of or sing over the top of anybody who was speaking," he said.

"It was pretty colourful language, you could say."

Mr Bird said some people left the hui in disgust, and elders who arranged it had apologised for the disruption Mrs Harawira and another person, believed to be one of her daughters, had caused.

Ms Turia said today she had been to marae all over New Zealand and had never known anybody to behave the way Mrs Harawira did.

"I think it's sad because there were people who came to the hui who brought their mokopuna with them, and they had to send their mokopuna outside," she said.

"They were very, very upset that they had to take their grandchildren outside.

Mr Sharples said he was used to Mrs Harawira's "carry-ons" and described her behaviour as "uncontrollable".

Mr Bird yesterday refused to name any possible candidates for the Northland electorate but said the selection process would begin immediately.

A by-election would cost $500,000 to run and would be held close to the general election.

National and Labour have described it as a waste of money and a political stunt, and National has said it would not contest it.

NZPA
Mon, 09 May 2011
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Maori Party confident it can win by-election
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