Davidson up for Greens co-leader
Backbench Green MP Marama Davidson has officially announced her bid to be the new co-leader of the Green Party.
The position has been vacant since Metiria Turei resigned in August.
The party’s constitution mandates that there must be a male and female co-leader.
Davidson is the first contender out the gate and picked by many as the favourite.
Nominations opened on Friday and will close next Friday.
The 44-year-old Davidson first entered Parliament in 2015 follow- ing the resignation of Russell Norman.
Before that she worked as a youth worker and at the Human Rights Commission and the Owen Glenn Inquiry into domestic abuse.
Davidson said she was comfortable with being seen as the Leftwing candidate in the race.
She was also comfortable with the comparisons many would make with Turei.
Davidson had been a member of the Green Party for only a year when Turei first asked her to stand for Ikaroa-Ra¯whiti in the 2014 election.
‘‘It was an incredible honour. ‘‘Becoming a politician was not part of my plan.
‘‘But it was incredibly humbling,’’ Davidson said.
‘‘I had admired her as a role model, as a strong Ma¯ori politician who had put the Green Party into Ma¯ori communities for many years.’’
Since Turei’s resignation following a firestorm of controversy concerning her admitted historic benefit fraud, her stature in the party’s activist base has only grown.
Green Party members will choose their next leader, via a delegate vote made by their local branch, with the winner announced on April 8.
Other likely contenders are Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter and Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage.