ONE Party enters Tukituki election race with Melanie Petrowski

Melanie Petrowski, ONE Party's first 2020 election candidate in Hawke's Bay and one of three so far named to challenge current MP Lawrence Yule. Photo / Supplied

A woman who stood unsuccessfully for a seat on the Hastings District Council last year is now one of four people contesting the area's Tukituki seat in Parliament.

While nominations don't open until next week, Melanie Petrowski has been confirmed as the ONE party candidate, up against National Party MP and second-term hopeful Lawrence Yule, Labour Party candidate Anna Lorck and Green Party challenger Chris Perley.

Petrowski, 44, grew up in Flaxmere, and her bid for one of the ward's seats on the council was her first foray into election campaigning.

Having left Hawke's Bay at the age of 18, she spent three years training in the air force in Auckland, and ultimately worked in the area for about 20 years.

During the council campaign last year, she told of how she had returned to Hawke's Bay to live in Hastings in 2015 and became worried about boy-racers in the suburb, and safety on the roads and in the streets. She also called for improved water quality, and had concerns for affordable housing, poverty and other social issues.

Deciding the only way she could achieve anything with the issues, and having been involved with the New Conservative party as a convenor, she evaluated party options and settled on ONE Party because it was "completely Christian".

She said she felt "blessed" to get over 300 votes she achieved in the council race, and added: "I was pretty much a nobody, I didn't own a business, and I was a student at the time".

ONE Party, the 15th and latest party to register and become eligible for the party vote in the September 19 General Election, is yet to find a candidate for the Napier seat, although Petrowski has been looking on the party's behalf. "Watch this space," she said.

The party rejected overtures to be a part of a minor parties alliance proposed by the unregistered New Zealand Public Party. On July 26 it was announced they would be in a minor parties alliance with independent MP and former National Party member Jami Lee Ross's Advance NZ Party, which is currently going through the registration process with a deadline of August 16.

Parliament adjourns on Thursday, kicking in the election process. Candidate nominations formally open next week and close on August 21.

Candidates named to date for seats in the Hawke's Bay area are:

Napier (includes Wairoa): Labour Party, Stuart Nash (current MP); National Party, Katie Nimon; Green Party, James Crow; Act, Judy Kendall; New Conservative, Deborah Burnside.

Tukituki (includes Hastings, Havelock North, Flaxmere): National Party, Lawrence Yule (current MP); Labour Party, Anna Lorck; Green Party, Chris Perley; Melanie Petrowski (ONE Party).

Wairarapa (includes Central Hawke's Bay, Dannevirke): National Party (party holds seat), Mike Butterick; Labour Party, Kieran McAnulty (List MP), New Zealand First, Ron Mark (List MP), Green Party, Celia Wade-Brown; Act, Roger Greenslade; New Conservative, Warren Butterworth.

Ikaroa Rawhiti (East Coast, Hawke's Bay, Wairarapa): Labour Party, Meka Whaitiri (current MP); Maori Party, Heather Te Au Skipworth; Green Party, Elizabeth Kerekere; Outdoors Party, Kelly Thurston.