I very much doubt it as hasn't even been a year since the last one so it would backfire if he did.
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EZ - you be very happy tonight eh
Think Nat Gvt need to be in a law banning over 70 year olds to stand in elections.
Hope somebody else packs sad or ha been naughty so we can another by-election. They good fun at the moment. Nats would lose wherever it would be
My apologies to Mr Peters ....he is a few weeks off 70
Still a great effort by the old bugger
Possibly this is good for national. Winston will now prove over the next few years if that change was good for NZ. How's that worked with Winston historically? Goldcard good, the rest???
So it is clear Winston First (only) won this by-election. But I think Labour are the real losers alongside National. Winston wil now become the real Leader of the Opposition and silly Andrew Little is a goner. Dunne ,ACT,Maori Party are up., Labour down the gurgler.
I reckon Key should put the hard word on Dunne on the RMA and a couple of other bills or simply call a general election and let people decide
Slimwin, how on earth can you spin this positively for National. There is nothing, absolutely no positive in this for National. A hell of a lot of people were voting against National not voting for Peters & says it all. Agree re Labour, although difficult to say with them backing Peters. In the GE Prime reduced the margin & she would have substantially here if Peters hadn't stood, but very unlikely she would have won it. Early days for Little & so far I think he has done an ok job and is gathering an increasing amount if respect. However he has inherited a party that has been in disarray for some time, so its not going to happen overnight. Basically the jury is still out on Little.
Sorry Iceman, no the biggest loser is by far National. Take the blinkers off.
Many people up here were openly apologizing for not voting Labour as they wanted to vote strategically to get rid of National.
Prime was a very popular candidate.
Congratulations to Ria Bond, the likely new Southland list MP of NZ First. She is the next on the NZ First list with Winston having now his own electorate (though we don't know yet, whether she will accept the new job)! If she does, I am sure she will be highly committed to the people of Northland who brought her into office.
Actually, I am wondering whether the people currently rejoicing with this election result will really turn out to be the ultimate winners of this election?
So lets see:
The people of Northland get the candidate they voted for. Did they win though? Actually, I don't know, but I can't remember Winston doing a lot for his previous constituencies (Tauranga), so why should it be different this time? On the other hand - never before this election heard of the National candidate, and at the end it probably doesn't really matter whether Osborne from Northland or Bond from Southland (Invercargill) are now drawing a MP's salary (remember - nothing changes for Peters, he is already a sitting MP, just slipping from List-MP to directly elected).
The people of New Zealand - actually, I do see some winners here. National stopped to listen to the people (same as Helen in her third term). This election might act as a warning shot in front of their bow - and who knows, maybe the current government starts to consider again the wishes of the people (ever the optimist ...).
The Green / Left: They are rejoicing the most ... and I am not quite sure whether they really won. Winston is clearly neither Green nor Left - and the past shows that he is very happy to work with the people offering him the bigger baubles ...
National: Will be interesting to see how they are playing it, but this event very well might be a healing shock for a party which slowly stopped to listen to the people. If they get the message (Thanks Winston) than this might be the key event helping them to get their act again together, restart to listen and continue their reign come 2017. Two and a half years should be plenty to regroup and improve.
I guess time will tell - but nothing better than a lost election to keep politicians on their toes.
It's a wake up call along way out from an election Daytr. The ball is in their court to be better now. This can be that call, or the start of the rot. I still don't see who can govern NZ better at the moment and the polls for ALL of NZ reflect the same. It's not all about Northland, as much as Northlanders wish it could be.