Dom Post on Nandor

The Dom Post gets onto the Nandor quitting story today. It’s a pity they didn’t acknowledge the Whoar blog as the source of the “speculation”. The story makes it fairly clear it is well beyond speculation incidentally:

Mr Norman confirmed that Mr Tanczos had approached the party leaders and caucus about the possibility of leaving but had made no firm decision yet.

Ms Fitzsimons said she would not ask Mr Tanczos to stay if he decided to leave.

Mr Norman praised Mr Tanczos’ service to New Zealand politics, regardless of what he decided to do. “Nandor’s made a tremendous contribution.”

Sounds like a eulogy to me. Incidentally one wrong detail in the story:

If Mr Tanczos does quit, the next person on the party list would normally take his place. Though there are two before Mr Norman – former MP Mike Ward and Catherine Delahunty – neither co-leader would deny suggestions the two would step aside to allow Mr Norman to enter Parliament, and boost the party’s profile, in the runup to the election. Mr Ward and Ms Delahunty could not be reached.

When a vacancy for a List MP occurs, the Chief Electoral Office has a two stage process to go through. First they check with the party secretary if the candidate is still a party member, and then they check if the candidate will accept the post.

In the case of Mike Ward, I suspect he is no longer a party member. If memory serves me correctly he announced he was supporting or joining National at the end of 2006.

My memory failed.  I was confusing Ward with Ian Ewen-Street.  Both from the same region.