Clark spends day shaking hands in Labour strongholds

4.00pm

Labour leader Helen Clark began her final push for votes this morning in the shopping malls of Auckland.

After a series of media interviews, Miss Clark wound down her campaign shaking hands. Armed with a healthy lead in the polls, but looking to be short of a majority in Parliament, the prime minister told voters their backing would return a "stable government" delivering more of the same policy mix.

Labour spent much of the campaign attacking potential allies but Miss Clark has now softened her stance on the Greens.

Last night, Miss Clark said it was possible to have a "confidence and supply arrangement" with the Greens until the genetic engineering moratorium expired next October.

"At that point I'd be wondering what other parties are going to want to bring the Government down and call a fresh election. I expect not very many.

"I have had a confidence and supply arrangement with the Greens through this last term. We have been able to run a strong and stable Government," she said.

A New Zealand Herald poll released today showed Labour voters drifting away as its traditional rivals National remained stuck on historically low levels of support.

Both Miss Clark and National leader Bill English last night appealed to supporters to vote for what they believed in and not think tactics.

Both also expressed surprise at the rise of Peter Dunne's United Future party, saying voters would be putting MPs into Parliament whom they knew little about.

Miss Clark is spending her final day of campaigning in the malls of South and West Auckland, shunning a formal campaign wrap.

Tomorrow she will vote at a school in Mt Albert and will remain at home awaiting the verdict of voters.

Her staff are armed with the contact details of all potential political allies, but Labour strategists believe a final result and the stitching together of a government may not be as clear as they first expected when the campaign began four weeks ago.

- NZPA

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