John Tamihere after being chosen as the Maori Party candidate for Tamaki Makaurau. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Former Auckland mayoralty hopeful turned Māori Party co-leader John Tamihere has put his party's hopes of getting into Parliament on him winning the Tāmaki Makaurau seat.
It is a seat he held almost two decades ago as a Labour MP and one the Māori Party has had success with in the past.
The party revealed that Tamihere is ranked number seven on its list this morning – on current polling neither he nor any member of the Māori Party would make it into Parliament.
By convention, party co-leaders are usually placed at either the first or second list spot.
Tamihere said the "risky move" means if he does not win Tāmaki Makaurau, he won't get into Parliament.
"This is the Māori thing to do and I could not go back to Parliament if I didn't have the mandate of the people on the street," Tamihere said.
The move is essentially an admission that the party does not think it can win 5 per cent of the total vote this election – the required level of support a party needs to be in Parliament.
The most recent poll puts the party on just 1 per cent.
But if a party wins an electorate seat, it does not need to get 5 per cent in the polls to get into Parliament.
Act, for example, got only 0.5 per cent last election but, because its leader David Seymour won the Epsom seat, he was elected to Parliament.
Tamihere appears to be aiming for the same outcome this election.
And, depending on the party vote, if he wins he might be able to bring a few more Māori Party MPs in with him.
However, the fight for Tāmaki Makaurau – the Māori electoral seat covering the geographical Auckland City region – will be tough for Tamihere.
He is up against Labour's Peeni Henare, Minister of Civil Defence, and the Green's co-leader Marama Davidson.
Henare has held the seat since 2014.
However, the Māori Party has won the seat in the past. Former co-leader Pita Sharples held the seat from 2005 until 2011.
He won the seat from Tamihere himself who, as a Labour MP, won it in 2002 by a substantial margin.
"We are building an enduring Māori political movement from here to eternity," Tamihere said in a statement this morning.
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