National’s Northland selection

I hear on the grapevine that National will select its candidate for the Northland by-election on Saturday 28 February. This means that the by-election will be on Saturday 21 or 28 March as it must be held 20 to 27 days after nominations day.

The reason that the candidate selection will take a while is that unlike parties where the head office basically makes the selection, this will require aspiring candidates to travel around the entire Northland electorate which stretches from Wellsford to Cape Reinga, a 350 km distance.

I understand National currently has close to 1,400 financial members in Northland. This means that there will be around 140 delegates making the selection. Most aspiring candidates will try and meet every delegate one on one.

The strong membership base will help with the campaign. You need a big campaign team to cover so much area.

Quite a few people already expressing interest in the nomination. It should be a well contested candidacy.