Packed field of candidates here

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

East Coast voters have a record number of candidates to choose from this election, but the reality is that one of the two largest parties will provide the winner.

When nominations closed last week. five new candidates joined the contest from those who had previously been confirmed and attended debates.

Two of them were New Zealand First’s Craig Sinclair and Fallyn Flavell for Te Pāti Maori.

Sinclair is a dairy farmer and wants to see New Zealand restored to economic prosperity while standing for open democracy and an equal vote for all New Zealanders.

Ms Flavell has an economic background graduating from Otago University with science and commerce undergraduate degrees before completing a Master of Indigenous studies degree in 2012.

The other three are independents: Monaco Caracas, Gordon Dickson and Don Richards are comparative unknowns. Independents have never really featured in what is now the East Coast (previously Gisborne) electorate — the only exception being former mayor Douglas Lysnar, who held the seat briefly in 1930. The significant new additions are the two centre right parties Democracy NZ and Vision NZ.

While none of the smaller parties have much hope of taking the seat, they do have the potential to boost party vote.

Much interest in this district could focus on the Ikaroa-Māori seat, where Meka Whaitiri defected from the Labour Government to stand for Te Pāti Māori and Cushla Tangaere-Manuel is seeking to hold this vital seat for Labour.

Those two will hold a live television debate tonight on Whakaata Māori.

They were joined last week by Ata Tuhakaraina of Vision New Zealand who has a deep passion to shift Maori from over-representation in negative statistics to fulfilling their potential.

One of the downsides of having so many candidates is that it is difficult to get their individual voices heard in such a packed field. The greatest impact they might have would be to take some key votes away from the National and Labour candidates, Dana Kirkpatrick and Tamati Coffey, in what could be a close race.

In that sense, neither is likely to have benefited from the first television debate between prime minister Chri Hipkins and National leader Christopher Luxon which most political commentators are calling a draw.

Some have said the debate did more to draw out the similarities between the two men, both of whom got their first house at 24 and drive EVs. If that is right, Luxon would benefit most. It was Labour that needed a knock out.