Hikoi hero says voters will decide on candidate

By CLAIRE TREVETT

Activist Titewhai Harawira has said she would like to stand for the Maori Party, but her son, a hot tip to stand for the Tai Tokerau seat, remains cagey.

Yesterday at a Maori Party hui in Kaitaia, Hone Harawira - a hero of the hikoi from which the party was born - dropped some hints but carefully avoided saying whether he would put his name forward.

The Kaitaia Community Centre was the first hui of a Northland road tour organised by the Maori Party's Te Hiku branch to introduce party co-leader, Maori academic Dr Pita Sharples.

It was also a chance to get the names of people who wanted to stand against Labour's Dover Samuels in the Tai Tokerau electorate in the next election.

"I know a lot of people have asked me to stand," Mr Harawira said. "There's probably a lot of others asking me not to stand.

"At some time in the future the people themselves will determine who will be the appropriate candidate for Tai Tokerau."

He said he backed the party and had a deep respect for the party's three leaders, Dr Sharples, ex-Labour minister Tariana Turia and Maori sovereignty campaigner and Anglican church leader Whatarangi Winiata.

The Maori Party aims to get seven seats in the next election by ousting all the Labour Maori electorate MPs.

Dr Sharples said Labour's Maori MPs, with the exception of Tariana Turia, had let Maori down on the foreshore and seabed.

"So Dover Samuels must not get back in, [John] Tamihere must not because they turned their backs on us."

* A similar hui was held in Kaikohe last night. The roadtrip is at Waiomio and Whangarei today and at Hato Petera Marae in Auckland at 10am tomorrow.