Act seeks Epsom party tick

By FRANCESCA MOLD

Act MP Rodney Hide will register as a candidate in the Epsom seat but will ask residents to give him their party rather than electorate vote.

Act president Catherine Judd announced the board's decision not to allow Mr Hide to fight for the title of Epsom MP in Wellington yesterday.

She said that the party's polling showed it was possible for Mr Hide to win Epsom.

"However, the party feels it would require a focus of resources and Rodney's time that would better serve the party if applied in a nationwide campaign ... "

Ms Judd said there had been talks with the National Party about Epsom but no deal had been made between the parties.

Act leader Richard Prebble welcomed the decision, saying a race against National in Epsom would have been "bruising".

"Act's real opponent is the Labour-Green de facto coalition," he said.

Mr Hide said he supported the decision despite it being well known that he was pushing hard for approval to actively contest the seat, held by National's Richard Worth. The decision means that although Mr Hide's name will be on the ballot paper and people can still vote for him as their local MP, he will be asking them instead to give Act their party vote.

However, Mr Hide could not bring himself to endorse Mr Worth as the MP for Epsom yesterday. Asked if he felt he was leaving Epsom voters in the hands of someone who was not up to the job, Mr Hide said "that's their call".



In 1999, Mr Hide polled 10,453 votes compared to Mr Worth's 12,361, slashing National's majority under former MP Christine Fletcher from more than 20,000 to 1908.

But at the same time Act's party vote in the Epsom electorate dipped from 20 per cent to 16.

Yesterday's decision fits with Act's policy of campaigning only for party votes nationwide.

It has been polling at just under the five per cent threshold needed for parties who don't hold an electorate to get list MPs into Parliament.

Last month, Mr Prebble decided he would not stand in Wellington Central so he could instead focus on a nationwide campaign for the party vote, based largely on Act's policy of zero tolerance to crime.

Epsom's Green Party candidate, Keith Locke, said he believed Mr Hide stood no chance of winning the electorate and was simply "cutting his losses".

He said Act had taken a "moral conservative line" that included locking everyone in prisons and "Maori bashing".

"This would not appeal to the liberal Epsom constituency," said Mr Locke. "Mr Hide would have been badly beaten."

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