Green’s unusual electorate campaign
An unusual strategy by the Green Party could result in an up for grabs Auckland electorate going to National.
The Maungakiekie electorate had been held by National MP Sam Lotu-liga since 2008, but with the former Corrections Minister stepping down at this election the electorate is there for the taking.
Maungakiekie candidates are National’s Denise Lee, Labour’s Priyanca Radhakrishnan, Green’s Chloe Swarbrick, Maori Party’s Manase Lua and Communist League’s Michael Tucker.
The electorate is comprised of Penrose, Ellerslie, Mt Wellington, One Tree Hill, Panmure, Royal Oak, Onehunga, and Point England.
In 2014 Lotu-liga won the electorate with 16,132 votes. Together Labour and Greens had 15,869 votes.
Political commentator Chris Trotter said the Green’s decision to run high profile candidate Swarbrick in the electorate would probably cause National to retain the seat because the left’s vote would be split.
‘‘It’s a very unusual strategy the Greens have adopted. I can’t see the logic in it anywhere,’’ Trotter said.
Radhakrishnan had a ‘‘reasonable chance’’ of taking the seat, provided 2000 to 3000 votes weren’t siphoned off by the Greens, Trotter said.
Last year Labour and the Greens signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreeing to work together to change the Gov- ernment in 2017.
However, the MOU did not affect where candidates would run, Trotter said.
The Greens wanted to maxi- mise their party vote and they couldn’t do that without a candidate in the electorate, he said.
However, the MMP system could have been utilised if the Greens had reached an agreement with Labour to give them the party vote and let the seat go to Labour, he said.
‘‘They really could have achieved something - two for the price of one,’’ Trotter said.
Last year Swarbrick came third in Auckland’s 2016 mayoral race with more than 26,000 votes.
Swarbrick, who is popular with young voters, is ranked ninth on the Green’s list while Radhakrishnan was ranked 11th on Labour’s list.
Radhakrishnan said the Greens had been clear they were only going for the party vote.
However, Swarbick said she was running for Maungakiekie, but she was campaigning predominantly for the party vote.