Ousted McLean ready to move on

By CHRIS DANIELS

Ousted Coromandel MP Murray McLean last night said that it was too early to say if he would ask for a recount or legally challenge the result.

"I wouldn't comment on that at the moment because I don't know. We've only just got the results. I would reserve any comments on that till we've looked in the cold light of day tomorrow. To be honest I haven't even looked at it but I wouldn't like to say yes or no."

"I think naturally we are disappointed - we ran a good campaign, no I am not on the list, my future is now that I will go and do something else. That is a decision I made some time ago. It's not my belief to be on the list and I don't regret that in any shape or form."

"This is democracy and the people have spoken. That's the way they voted and I fully accept that."

He said he had never accepted the election night result as final and was always aware that special votes may have handed the seat to Ms Fitzsimons.

Mr McLean said a number of things had lead to his loss of a National seat to the Greens.

"On paper we had a 1700 majority, that's turned around 2000. I think if you look at the way a number of issues swung to the left, we performed very creditably."

He said he had a number of business opportunities he now wished to pursue.

"Congratulations to Jeanette - she won. Until you've done the final count you can't count it, now she's won and that's the way it is."

National Party president John Slater said the result was "not good news for National" as it meant the party was losing a good MP in the form of Mr McLean, who was held in very high regard.

National MP Arthur Anae, who was set to return to Parliament on the List, could not be contacted last night. A family member said he was in Samoa.