The Green Party will head into the general election with just one leader, following Metiria Turei's resignation as co-leader after weeks of controversy.
It is a further twist to an already extraordinary election campaign.
Ms Turei yesterday became the second opposition leader to step down in little more than a week.
The scrutiny of her family over her historic child benefit offending had become unbearable, she said, and she risked sinking the party's hopes of being in power after September.
She will quit politics at the election after 15 years in Parliament.
In a dramatic evening in Parliament, her resignation came before the release of two polls which showed the Green vote had collapsed and risked falling below the 5% threshold.
The latest Newshub-Reid Research poll showed the party had dropped from 13.3% to 8.3%, making it the fourth-ranked party in Parliament for the first time.
A UMR poll obtained by The New Zealand Herald showed the Green vote had fallen from 15% to 8%.
Just 24 hours before her resignation, Ms Turei had said she would remain as co-leader, no matter what the polls showed. But speaking at a press conference yesterday, said she changed her mind while in a taxi between meetings in Wellington.
Smiling occasionally and appearing relieved at times, she said her main reason for quitting was the extreme scrutiny of her family since she admitted historical benefit fraud three weeks ago.
She had expected some level of inquiry, but ''not to that degree''.
The ongoing controversy had hindered her party's bid to enter government for the first time in its history, she said.
Co-leader James Shaw will lead the party alone until Ms Turei's replacement is chosen next year. Julie-Anne Genter, Marama Davidson and Chloe Swarbrick will be among the frontrunners to replace her.
Just before her resignation, RNZ had reported that a close friend of Ms Turei's had strongly questioned her personal story, saying that she had been well supported by her daughter's grandparents and had not been in poverty in her 20s.
Ms Turei insisted that it was neither this latest allegation nor the polls that influenced her resignation.
Mr Shaw admitted Ms Turei's admission about her past had made party members and MPs uncomfortable, but they had felt it had started an important debate about welfare.
''We have paid a heavy price for that, and Metiria has paid a particularly heavy price for that,'' Mr Shaw said.
Labour appears to have been the biggest beneficiary of the Green Party's fall in popularity. Both its personal vote and leader Jacinda Ardern's popularity soared in the latest poll.
Ms Ardern paid tribute to Ms Turei, saying she had made an ''enormous'' contribution.
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said Ms Turei's admission had been compounded by ''seriously bad PR and decision-making''.
Former Green MP Sue Bradford, who lost to Ms Turei in the leadership run-off in 2009, said she could understand why Ms Turei had decided to go.
''She's obviously doing it for her family and herself and the party, and I totally feel for her on that level.
''She stood up for beneficiaries, for Maori and women trying to bring up their kids on the welfare system and she's really copped it as a result. I'm sad for her and I'm sad for this country that this is the way so many people react.''
-By Isaac Davidson
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Comments
The Greens never fail to surprise me. Ms Bradford says Ms Turei was picked on for supporting pensioners and Maori. No, she was scrutinised because she defrauded New Zealand tax payers of a sum of money. Repeatedly and over a number of years. She admitted this.
I am utterly bewildered that any political party could condone and support this fraud. Obviously some greens members agree because they had the integrity to resign from the greens earlier in the week. Ms Turei should follow their lead, not just out of leadership, but out of parliament.
Turei is hounded, villified and destroyed because she admits she lied in order to feed her children. I admire her bravery. I have a well paid job & a good career, however i was briefly on the dpb and was reduced to eating only bread, porridge & milk powder many days so i could pay bills such as electricity & petrol. I was hungry. I was stressed. I was hell of a worried how i would pay the essentials to keep my baby warm & well. The dpb is not enough to feed nutritious food and pay bills.
So some women do what they can and tell lies to protect & feed innocent children &buy them shoes. But get villified.
And then there are middle class male white fraudsters. Who steal mega money for greed & self aggrandisement. And the public judge them with a slap with a wet dish towel. Middle class white male politicians leave their crimes easily behind because the public judges white collar crime "ok" & "clever" compared to crime from poor people trying to feed hungry, innocent children.
Walk in a poor mum's shoes who is feeding her small hungry children. Those innocent, hungry children are our future.