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Long-time Labour Party president Mike Williams says he will stand down early next year, once a party-wide election selects a successor.
He said that after Saturday's defeat, "there's been a very smooth transition of power in the political wing and I think there should be a similarly smooth transition in the organisational wing".
Expected to replace him is Andrew Little, national secretary of New Zealand's largest private-sector trade union, the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union, who confirmed yesterday he would be "keen to seek the position when Mike vacates it".
Mr Williams, campaign manager since 1998 and party president since 2000, said "we'll have to wait and see" if there were any other contenders.
A replacement will also be voted in for senior vice-president Marian Hobbs, who has moved to England.
Mr Little said the presidency was not a full-time job and he saw no conflict of interest in continuing his job as a union secretary. He also intends to stand for Parliament in 2011.
