Nandor retiring, but when?

Nandor announced yesterday he would not be a candidate in the 2008 election.  This comes as little surprise to blog readers because I linked on the 1st of Jan to Phil U’s blog post at Whoar where he wrote about the plan for Nandor to actually go before the election, and have the next two candidates on the Green’s list refuse their seats so Russel Norman will become an MP before the election.

This of course will allow Russel to campaign fulltime on taxpayer expense, as MPs can do but party leaders outside Parliament can’t do.

It is a pity none of the mainstream media reports have credited Phil for breaking this story and this announcement confirms he was right.

What the Greens and Nandor are silent on is whether he will stay until the election.  They say no decisions have been made and there is no pressure.  I think they are not telling the whole truth, based on what Phil U has said.  It seems obvious a deal has been done in principle but they just don’t want to announce details too far in advance.

If this is not the case, then all they have to say is that Nandor will definitely serve out his term (as 95% of MPs do).

I’ve already blogged that my views on Nandor have improved over the years, but will save doing the eulogy type post until he actually retires.