Recent troubles within Act New Zealand have once again raised
questions over their reliance on Rodney Hide's Epsom
electorate.
Their concerns are likely to be heightened after Prime
Minister John Key confirmed National would stand a candidate
there.
Act's five MPs are in Parliament only because Mr Hide holds
the seat. The party won 3.65% of the vote in 2008, short of
the 5% threshold otherwise needed to win seats.
Mr Hide won the Epsom seat with 21,102 votes in 2008.
His nearest competitor was former National minister Richard
Worth with 8220 votes.
Dr Worth, in Parliament as a list MP, resigned in June last
year under a cloud, after Prime Minister John Key said he had
lost confidence in him.
Until today National had not confirmed whether it would stand
a candidate in the electorate.
Mr Key said it would, although he did not speculate on who it
would be.
"National will put up a candidate for the Epsom seat, just as
we did in the 2008 election.
"There's a long way to go until the next election and we'll
be going through the candidate selection process in due
course," he said.
Mr Hide said neither his seat nor Act's position in
Parliament could be taken for granted.
"That's why we work so hard to do the good job that we do."
He said the National Party had made it clear to him that it
would be standing a candidate in Epsom.
"It's not for the Act Party, or the National Party, or the
Green Party or the Labour Party to say who should be the MP
for Epsom. It's actually up to the people of Epsom. That's
why I have to work so hard."
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