The main shooters: Mana's Hone Harawira, Labour's Kelvin Davis and, to a lesser degree, Maori's Solomon Tipene.
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| Foo, eh, bro?! |
There were 32,738 registered voters, but only about 12,000 could be bothered to actually vote. A handful were turned away, because they were on the general roll and thus were ineligible. One polling station manager said: "There wasn't enough communication about the difference between the general vote and Te Tai Tokerau. There's been a communication breakdown so...that needs to be addressed." *sigh* How often (and at what expense) does this apartheid-like electoral system need explaining? If you're bro, you can choose to be on the general or the maori roll. If you're not, you're on the general roll. Only maori voters could play this time round. But if you weren't registered, you couldn't vote at all. Maori are not stupid - these ridiculous statements about needing more publicity are very patronising.
Well, as you now know, Hone won - but with no sweeping mandate. His 6,000 majority was gunned down to around 860: the maori seat with the largest majority is now the most marginal.
So it'll be interesting to see whether his pontificating to the maori masses about "us-vs-them" (meaning the "white mother f***ers") was patronisation as well, or whether he can actually set aside his foul-mouthed aggression for the sake of those who've put their faith in him. But with less than two dozen sitting days before the House adjourns for the General Election run-up...all the voters really did was secure HH a healthy salary for the next few months!
Ironically he's now suggesting a possible amalgamation of Mana and the Maori Party: go figure! Looks like Hone will provide plenty of cannon fodder for a while yet...
PS: 19 July 2011 - Hone cocks up again...this time it could cost him $40k!!!
3 comments:
Te Tai Tokerau in November could now be very interesting. Bets are now on whether Harawira will extend this majority, or the northern seat will fall to Labour. We'll have to stay up to the wee small hours of the morning, most likely, to find out. I'll start preparing for brewing the coffee.
Well, if he DOESN'T, Kelvin Davis is highly likely to beat him. Hone has very little time to consolidate his position and PROVE he can actually do anything more than just badmouth people!
Watch this space...and please make sure you have plenty of mallowpuffs to go with that coffee!!!
I read already that Matt McCarten is "toning down" Hone's image and rhetoric, so convince potential voters that he's not such a loudmouthed braggard.
That must be applying to his bitching mother too, becoz I've heard NOTHING from her since that hui! Did someone GAG her, or is that a forlorn hope?
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