Curran to stand

Clare Curran has confirmed she will seek the Dunedin South candidacy for Labour. Good.

I think it is a healthy thing in all parties when there is a contest for the nomination – especially in safe seats where winning the nomination almost makes you the MP by default.

That makes three challengers to David Benson-Pope.  I wonder if he will withdraw and retire with some dignity rather than be thrown out?

Does anyone who knows, want to comment on how Labour selections cope with more than two candidates?  If no candidate has a majority of the seven votes, does the one with the least support drop out?

That is what happens in National.  There are generally 60 delegates and up to five candidates.  If none of them get 31 or more votes – a majority, the lowest polling one drops out and then everyone votes again.  One can end up with four rounds of voting on the selection night.

For a few years the rules had people rank the candidates, so that if no one got a majority, they merely reallocated the preferences of the lowest polling (like in Australia) until there was a winner.  It was a lot quicker, and mathmetically the same thing as multiple rounds of voting.

However members actually enjoyed the suspense of learning the result stage by stage, and revoting after learning who had been eliminated.  So the rules changed back a couple of years ago.