September 19, 2014
Harawira picked to hold seat
Former Mana Motuhake leader and cabinet minister Sandra Lee says the election campaign has highlighted the need for Maori to vote strategically to get their voices heard.
Ms Lee says if the election campaign had been written as a novel, it would have been rejected by a publisher as too far-fetched.
She says the most likely outcome tomorrow is that a Maori leader of a political party will get to decide who forms the next Government.
She is picking incumbent Maori MPs to hold their seats.
"I think Hone will hold his seat and I suspect Te Ururoa will hold his seat, probably both of them with smaller majorities. I suspect Tari and Pita’s seats, going off the party vote polling, will revert back to Labour so there is some very clear thinking that has top be done by Maori who aspire to seeing our people in parliament Maori who aspire to make sure we don’t lose what we have won in the past simply under the old two party representation system," she says.
Ms Lee says Maori views are too diverse to be contained by one political vehicle, but it’s important that an independent Maori voice exists in parliament.
The last Stuff/Ipsos poll before Saturday's election recorded National down 5.1 points to 47.7 per cent and Labour up 3.7 points to 26.15 per cent.
New Zealand First was looking comfortable on 6.6 per cent.
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH SANDRA LEE CLICK ON THE LINK
https://secure.zeald.com/uma/play_podcast?podlink=MjIyODY=
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