National’s MPs will elect a deputy leader as well as a new leader when they meet in a week’s time, as requested by Paula Bennett.
The job of deputy leader is not vacant but Bennett, the incumbent, has decided a vote for the position should be held anyway.
National’s chief whip Jami-Lee Ross says Bennett came to him last week and told him it was important the Caucus votes on its deputy.
She said on Tuesday morning that Caucus would be deciding on some of the “procedural decisions” in terms of a vote for deputy.
The Caucus confirmed this on Tuesday morning, and the vote is set down for 10:30 next Tuesday.
So far, Bennett is the only National MP who has indicated she is interested in the deputy position.
She said on Facebook last week she was keen to stay in the job.
“Our new leader will need help from an experienced, loyal deputy and I offer that,” she said.
Auckland Central MP Nikki Kaye has ruled out a run at deputy as well.
However, there could be more candidates coming forward before the vote next Tuesday.
Ross says it's up to MPs to self-nominate for the job and it is up to any hopeful candidates how they declare their intentions.
The voting for leader and deputy leader will be conducted in a progressive voting system.
This means if one of the candidates gets at least 50% support from Caucus, they will automatically win the election.
Anything less than 50% means the candidate with the least number of votes drops off the list and MPs vote again.
This continues until one of the candidates wins 50%.
Before the vote, each leadership and deputy leadership candidate will have an opportunity to address Caucus.
Ross says the results of the secret ballot will not be made public.
15 Comments
Sharetrader, you are kidding surely.
The coalition got into power thru 3 parties that got nowhere near as many voters voting for them having to amalgamate all of their votes.
The coalition has got very few if any with sufficient business acumen to run anything, unless you know differently?
https://www.elections.org.nz/sites/default/files/So_who_gets_to_become_…
First past the post was put down many years ago.. perhaps you should read up on how Govts are formed in NZ in the modern era.
yes will be more pushed out once new leadership takes over, i expect to see people stepping down , maybe even a byelection.
we need a strong opposition otherwise we will end up with a labour party that will become as bad as the national party were for not doing anything about the issues we face
Bennett's maybe not sure of her support from any of the incoming leader candidates. That's why she wants a vote, then she can say the caucus has spoken, sorry Amy, Sorry Joycee. She doing it so the new leader can't ditch her so easy. Fools errand though. I predict Bennett is gone as Deputy, unless Simon wins.
Media will have a field day either way.
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