Dentist named to stand

The Conservative Party has become the first non-parliamentary party to name a candidate in the Hawke's Bay region for this year's general election.

He is Waipawa dentist Stephen Jenkinson, who also stood for the party in the seat at the last election three years ago. Then he polled fourth of seven candidates as incumbent Craig Foss retained the seat for National with a majority of almost 10,000 votes.

The Conservatives regarded their campaign in Tukituki as promising, producing one of their 10 best results.

Dr Jenkinson was born in Hawke's Bay and has lived in the region most of his life, apart from studying at Otago University and five years overseas, mainly in the UK, and some time on volunteer work in Samoa and Africa.

He says Conservative policies better represent Bay values than those of other parties.

"The Conservative Party's commitment to improve democracy through binding referendums, where the Government is compelled to listen to the people, not ignore them, is very important," he says.

"For example, in last year's referendum on the asset sales, the majority of Hawke's Bay voters voted against selling our assets, yet they were still sold," he says.

"On the anti-smacking law, over 90 per cent of the voters in Hawke's Bay voted to get rid of that undemocratic and unnecessary law and yet those elected to the House of Representatives from Hawke's Bay failed to represent that view."

National, Labour and the Greens have named candidates for Tukituki, Napier and Wairarapa, while Labour, the Maori Party and Mana have named candidates in Ikaroa Rawhiti, although nominations don't open until next month.

The election will be on September 20, and a campaign is under way to ensure all people aged 18 or over on election day are on the rolls and to encourage them to vote. Elections take place to find an MP in 71 electorates, with the remainder of MPs on ranked lists chosen from a party vote, creating a Parliament of about 120 members.