National Party leader Christopher Luxon has travelled by bus into Napier for the umpteenth time on the election trail, pleading with supporters to “party vote National”.
The trouble was he was mostly among the blue-wave faithful that pundits might guess had already voted, although advance voting statistics show the turnout to be down by more than 40 per cent on the same stage of the 2020 race.
By Tuesday night, 843,044 people had returned their papers nationwide, compared with 1,415,041 when three days of advance voting remained last time out.
Luxon was accompanied by deputy Nicola Willis, the bus all but clipping a parked vehicle as it pulled to a stop outside the Hawke’s Bay Club, and met by a sea of blue - including party devotees, police and “Health Forum” placard-bearers representing those detrimentally-impacted by Covid-19 vaccines.
On the lawn behind the hedge of the Marine Parade club, he implored supporters to make people vote, including “grab the strangers in the street” and “push hard, push, push”.
