Everything set for election - except a date

Prime Minister Helen Clark at a Grey Power meeting in Tauranga this week. Picture / Amos Chapple

The hoardings are up, but Prime Minister Helen Clark is still refusing to say when the election will take place.

Labour candidates began erecting campaign billboards around the country yesterday as expectations mount of a September 17 election.

Speaking from her Mt Albert electorate yesterday, Helen Clark would not be drawn on when the election would be announced, saying the hoardings were going up yesterday because it was two months out from the latest possible election date of September 24.

She could announce the election date before Parliament returns on Tuesday - taking the attention off Opposition attacks in the House - but some sources expect her to hold off till next week.

An announcement then would coincide with the Timaru District Court hearing into charges against the Crown limousine driver and police officers who sped the Prime Minister's motorcade to Christchurch Airport last year to catch a rugby game.

Yesterday's Marae-Digipoll of the northern Te Tai Tokerau Maori electorate brought more bad news for Labour: it confirmed Maori Party candidate Hone Harawira is set to win on 46 per cent and join co-leader Tariana Turia in Parliament.

This would knock out Labour's Dover Samuels, the sacked Maori Affairs Minister, who trails on 30 per cent.

The two men have been waging an acrimonious battle: Mr Samuels has complained that Mr Harawira refuses to allow him on his three Northland iwi radio stations. The Maori Party is also unhappy, complaining about campaign rules it claims allow Mr Samuels to distribute promotional newsletters at taxpayer expense.

Helen Clark said she had not seen the results, but that in the past the Marae-Digipolls had been based on samples "far too small to say anything sensible about individual electorates".

- Additional reporting by Patrick Crewdson