Te Tai Tokerau

With the number of newcomers vying for the Labour-held Northern Maori seat, MP Dover Samuels says it is difficult to predict who his main challenger will be.

In the last election, Samuels took nearly half of the 18,138 electorate votes. Behind him was NZ First candidate Anaru George, gaining nearly 16 per cent support.

This year, Maori activist Mike Smith, who tried to cut down the tree on One Tree Hill, is standing as an independent in the electorate and plans to boycott Parliament if elected.

Other new challengers include Maori activist Mere Mangu, running as an independent, National candidate Mita Harris and Naida Glavish for the Alliance.

Gone is George and also Tau Henare, MP for Te Tai Tokerau MP from 1993 to 1999 who ran for Mauri Pacific in the last election.

Samuels said NZ First was probably the biggest threat to the Labour vote, but was not standing a candidate this year.

Last election, it polled second with 15.7 per cent support behind Labour's 51 per cent of the party vote.

He said Labour was likely to gain more party votes as the boundaries for Te Tai Tokerau stretched from Cape Reinga to now only the northern parts of West Auckland and the North Shore.

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