It Is Game On In The Waiariki Electorate – Māori Party
Māori Party Candidate for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi is thrilled about the Māori Television Poll result released tonight, showing 38% of respondents say they intend to vote for the Labour candidate and 26% intend to vote for Rawiri Waititi.
“Polling only 12% behind an incumbent tells me that our people are ready for change. I am grateful for my whānau, the massive support we’ve got and I’m very happy with the authentically Māori, whānau oriented, grass-roots, up the guts, kapahaka campaign we have been running”
The Māori Television Poll also found that 24% of respondents were unsure about who their candidate vote would go to.
“The number of undecided people tells me that Waiariki are living up to their reputation of thinking independently and critically and not succumbing to the rhetoric being dished out by the Labour Party. Waiariki has always been a Māori Party strong-hold and our campaign has been focussed on regaining their trust and instilling the hope that I will amplify their voice and fight for their interests” said Waititi.
Across all Maori Televeision polls so far, there has been an overwhelming support for the Māori Party to be in coalition with Labour.
Waititi says “The only way our people can achieve their desired coalition is by giving their candidate vote to me Rawiri Waititi”.
“Two weeks is a long time in politics. We will continue to run a strong campaign, we will continue to advocate fiercely for our people and we will continue to do it with integrity”
Yes I think Rawiri is a great candidate and he knows his stuff. I have watched all the Maori debates and the Maori Party have a very high standard of candidates this election and I am very impressed.
My thought is maybe one or two might have a good show of winning their electorates and if even one wins and they get a share of the party vote, they may slip in two. This is important as its about getting ones foot in the door. And this will not be easy because Jacinda is popular amongst our Maori people. My other thought is if they (the Maori Party) don’t make it in this election and Labour don’t deliver for our people then the Maori Party will get all the seats back in the next election. The Maori Party have said they are rebuilding and this takes time.
I think if Labour does hold all of the Maori seats and they get the majority of the Maori party votes then I would expect our Maori candidates to be rewarded. And the loyalty needs to be reflected in the Ministerial positions and implementation of polices that benefit and lift our Maori people. If this does not happen there will be a Maori backlash, we have seen this happen before and it will again.