The Opportunity Party has released its party list, which has Dunedin candidate David Bainbridge-Zafar placed at a potentially electable eight.<\/p>\n
However, missing from the 40 person list is the party\u2019s previously announced candidate for Taieri, Matthew Phillips.<\/p>\n
Opportunity deputy leader Daniel Eb told the Otago Daily Times that Mr Phillips had withdrawn as the candidate for \u2018\u2018personal reasons\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n
The party has yet to nominate a replacement in Taieri.<\/p>\n
Its other confirmed southern candidates have fared well in the list ranking process: Southland candidate Bianca Beebe is at 11 and Waitaki candidate Helen Tait is at 16\u00a0on the 40-person list.<\/p>\n
Predictably, leader Qiulae Wong heads the list, with Mr Eb at number two.<\/p>\n
If Opportunity passed the 5% MMP threshold in the November 7 election it would elect six MPs.<\/p>\n
Should it reach 6%, Mr Bainbridge-Zafar would likely be packing his bags for Wellington.<\/p>\n
Recent polls have placed the party,\u00a0which described\u00a0itself as centrist and said it could work with either National or Labour if elected to Parliament,\u00a0in the vicinity of the threshold.<\/p>\n
However, this week National Party leader and\u00a0Prime Minister Christopher Luxon\u00a0said his party would not deal with Opportunity due to its tax policies,\u00a0a stance which could affect\u00a0Opportunity\u2019s polling.<\/p>\n
In a statement,\u00a0Ms Wong said her party\u2019s candidates combined fresh political thinking with substantial real-world experience.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018Opportunity brings together leaders who understand the economy we need to build, the communities we need to strengthen, and the natural environment we need to restore.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018We are backed by an outstanding national team campaigning in communities throughout the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cTogether, we offer New Zealand a serious, capable and innovative alternative.\u201d<\/p>\n
mike.houlahan@odt.co.nz<\/p>\n
Opportunity party list top 10 <\/p>\n
1. Qiulae Wong (Mt Albert)<\/p>\n
2. Daniel Eb (Kaipara ki Mahurangi)<\/p>\n
3. Jessica Hammond (Wellington North)<\/p>\n
4. Kayla Kingdon-Bebb (Wellington Bays)<\/p>\n
5. Eden Skipper (Christchurch Central)<\/p>\n
6. Jodie Kuntzsch (Nelson)<\/p>\n
7. Sarah Lucas (New Plymouth)<\/p>\n
8. David Bainbridge-Zafar (Dunedin)<\/p>\n
9. Holly Knill (North Shore)<\/p>\n
10. P\u0101p\u0101 Wharewera (Waiariki)<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Opportunity Party has released its party list, which has Dunedin candidate David Bainbridge-Zafar placed at a potentially…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-554318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}