ROSA WOODS/Stuff
Peter Goodfellow arriving at Parliament (File Photo).
The National Party has admitted breaking its own rules during the process to select a replacement for Nikki Kaye.
Party president Peter Goodfellow, who was on the committee that broke the rules, rejected any allegation that this was due to any intentional manipulation of the process.
National are in the process of selecting a last-minute replacement for Kaye as the party’s nominee in the Auckland central seat, which she wrested off Labour after decades of domination by the left. Kaye announced she was quitting politics soon after losing her deputy leadership role when leader Todd Muller unexpectedly resigned.
LAWRENCE SMITH/Stuff
Nikki Kaye’s resignation has left the party scrambling for a new candidate in Auckland Central.
The party broke its rules when its pre-selection panel for the Auckland central nomination selected just two candidates to go forwards for members to choose from, from a pool of more than 10.
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However, National Party rules only allow pre-selection panels to reduce the number of candidates to five. Those panels are also allowed to exclude candidates who are “considered unsuitable to be National Members of Parliament.”
This clause is generally reserved to remove people from the process deemed seriously unfit to be representatives of the party. This didn’t gel well with the wider party given several of the other candidates had stood for selection before or won local body races, and the process had essentially impugned them.
“When you put two names forward you are smearing the rest of the list,” one party source told Stuff.
Goodfellow said in a statement to Stuff that the committee had “difficult decisions to make from a wide pool of excellent candidates.”
”In the case of Auckland Central nominations, the pre-selection committee, comprising a majority of local members, and chaired by the local electorate chair, voted unanimously to put forward two candidates to delegates,” Goodfellow said.
“In so doing it did not strictly follow the letter of our rules. The pre-selection committee has now acknowledged that and rectified the issue.”
The party has reopened the selection process, pushing back the date it will have a nominee by to August 10.
This means it will not have a candidate ready for the first debate in the seat on August 9.
The panel originally selected two women: Emma Mellow and Nuwanthie Samarakone.
Mellow has connections with the Young Nats and is currently a senior communications manager for ANZ.
Samarakone is currently candidate in the Labour stronghold of Manurewa, an unwinnable seat for the National Party. She is the CEO of recruitment firm ICE.
It’s understood Samarakone is somewhat favoured by the party’s higher ups, but Goodfellow has “categorically” rejected any assertion that the hierachy is attempting to put its thumb on the scale.
“We absolutely and categorically reject any assertion made that the process to date was manipulated in any way. The National Party run extremely local and democratic selection processes, the most democratic of any Party in Parliament,” Goodfellow said.
“Auckland Central is the most marginal seat in the country and we are very focused on retaining it for National.”
Samarakone is understood to be close to National Party finance spokesman Paul Goldsmith and was recently photographed campaigning with him.
All candidates for the election must be registered with the Electoral Commission by August 21.
