National's Whangarei MP Shane Reti is the front runner to retain his seat, a new poll shows, but in the all important party vote race National and Labour are almost neck and neck.
In a Q+A Colmar Brunton poll released on Saturday Dr Reti is on 42 per cent support, well ahead of New Zealand First candidate Shane Jones (24 per cent); Labour candidate Tony Savage (22 per cent) and Greens' Ash Holwell on 10 per cent. Democrats for Social Credit candidate Chris Leitch drew 1.7 per cent and ACT candidate Robin Grieve 0.1 per cent.
But in the crucial party vote things were much tighter, with National on 41 per cent, Labour 37 per cent, NZ First 16 per cent, Greens 3.6 per cent, the Maori Party 1.3 per cent and Act 1 per cent. Labour got around 18 per cent of the party vote in Whangarei in the 2014 election
The party vote is the key vote as the percentage of the party vote dictates how many seats in Parliament each party gets.
Dr Reti is a first-term MP. Mr Jones, a former minister in the Helen Clark Labour Government, joined New Zealand First this year after serving a term as a special Pacific ambassador.
Mr Savage is a Whangarei lawyer while Mr Holwell is a community activist and Mr Leitch a dance instructor.
The poll of 504 respondents was taken between August 19 and 22 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 per cent.
National has held Whangarei since 1975, and Dr Reti had an almost 13,000 vote majority at the last election, but it hasn't always won the party vote in the seat. In the 2002 election Labour got 10,558 party votes, compared to National's 6959.