Ardern urges big turnout in ‘very close’ byelection
Bridges says he is ‘confident but not complacent’ as tomorrow’s voting deadline nears
Jacinda Ardern says the Northcote byelection is going to be very close and is encouraging everyone to get out and vote. “This one is going to come down to the wire,” she said yesterday after campaigning with Shanan Halbert.
“It all comes down to turnout in byelections and that is why we are encouraging everyone to have their say.”
National Party leader Simon Bridges says his party has put in a huge effort with more than 300 volunteers supporting Dan Bidois to keep the seat blue and all of National’s 55 MPs visiting the electorate.
Bridges said he was “confident but not complacent”. So would that effort make a loss even more significant?
“Read my lips,” said Bridges. “We are not playing to lose.” Bridges will join Bidois in the last day of campaigning today before all adver- tising is taken down before midnight.
Rebekah Jaung is standing for the Green Party, as she did in the last general election, and Stephen Berry is standing for Act.
Bidois said that some voters had been unhappy at the need for a byelection forced by the resignation of former National MP Jonathan Coleman to take up a post as a health executive, but fewer than he thought.
Coleman has held the seat since 2005 and his majority after last September’s election was 6210.
Bidois, aged 35 and a Foodstuffs executive, said he will begin his last day of campaigning as he ended it last night.
“I’ve been getting up at 5 o’clock each morning to do hoardings on the way to work and we have got an army of volunteers giving it all so we are fighting right up to the wire.”
He said over the past two months as people had got to know him “they like my story. A blue collar kid that BERRY, Stephen BIDOIS, Dan CHEEL, Tricia HALBERT, Shanan JAUNG, Rebekah KOLONI, Kym LYE, Jeff WALSH, Liam was pretty much on the wrong path in life and has succeeded and that speaks to the aspirations of this community,” he says, describing his move from delinquency to a Harvard scholarship. He moved into the electorate after being selected and says that move will be permanent if he wins the seat tomorrow.
Halbert, aged 35, has been pushing his local credentials as someone who lives locally and stood for Labour in Northcote last election. He is head of relationships, recruitment and communications at Te Wa¯nanga o Aotearoa in Mangere.
Speaking to the yesterday he said Housing Minister Phil Twyford had this week announced 400 affordable Kiwibuild houses for Northcote.
“That’s an opportunity for our local families, for people like me,” he said.
Both main candidates have campaigned on easing traffic congestion and Act’s Berry proposed a new harbour crossing from near Chelsea Sugar Refinery to Pt Chevalier.
Advance votes are expected to be announced by 7.30pm tomorrow night, according to the Electoral Commission. Results from 50 per cent of voting places are expected to be known by 9pm and results from 100 per cent of voting booths by 10pm.