D-Day for Labour hopefuls

THE big guns of the New Zealand Labour Party will be in town tonight for the selection of a Wairarapa candidate in what will be one of two major political decisions to be made this week.
Three aspiring MPs will be lining up to contest the Labour candidacy ? Masterton Mayor Bob Francis, Featherston teacher Denise MacKenzie and Carterton lawyer Ian Dunwoodie.
On Thursday it will be the turn of the National Party, with a final selection meeting being held to determine whether Greytown developer and Foreign Affairs director John Hayes, Christian broadcaster Kevyn Harris or Richard Townley, of Wellington, should attempt to wrest the seat from Labour.
Tonight's Labour selection will be held in the Turley Lounge at the Masterton Cosmopolitan Club at 7pm.
Just before the selection starting the Labour Electorate Committee will hold a meeting to select a representative to take part in the selection process.
Three head office representatives will automatically join the panel and are likely to include the party's president Mike Williams and general secretary Mike Smith.
A fifth panelist will be selected from the floor of the meeting with the only criteria being that whoever is picked must have been a paid-up party member for a year before the calling of nominations on May 28.
Once the people making the selection have been decided on the three hopefuls will be called on to address the meeting.
In keeping with Labour Party tradition an indicative vote will also be taken with those present being able to show their preference for one of the candidates, but there will be no vote count.
Wairarapa LEC secretary Jan Burns said this vote was "purely indicative" and the panel would retire to select the candidate.
Once that is done it would be "all on" to support the successful person in the bid to retain the seat, she said.
Should Mr Francis win selection and then win the seat for Labour, Masterton will face a by-election to choose a new mayor.
The National Party faithful will gather at the Masterton Town Hall on Thursday night to pick the man to contest the election for them.
Originally there had been four nominations but Te Whiti farmer David Holmes withdrew from the race late last month, saying he had decided to concentrate on his campaign to be re-elected as a Masterton district councillor.
As it happened Mr Holmes was not returned as a councillor.
National's selection process differs markedly from Labour's with a system known as universal suffrage being adopted this time.
Any person at the meeting who has been a paid-up member of the party for six months, and who has attended at least one meet-the-candidates night, is entitled to cast a vote.
An interesting aside is that candidate Kevyn Harris has not attended any of the meet-the-candidate nights, having excused himself from them to honour prior church commitments.
The National Party's head office considers the absences will not disqualify Mr Harris as a candidate but a question mark exists over whether he would have the right to cast a vote.