KEY POINTS:
Broadcaster Derek Fox has several hurdles to overcome before the battle begins to unseat Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia in the eastern seat of Ikaroa-Rawhiti.
First, he has to be selected against four women.
Mr Fox, 60, has put forward his name as the Maori Party candidate for
a contest that won't be decided until voting is completed by party members at half a dozen hui in the electorate next month.
Capturing the seat would be a huge trophy for the Maori Party which, on its first outing at the last election, won four of the seven Maori seats.
But the agreement the Government has reached giving Ngati Porou, the local iwi, much greater autonomy may strengthen Mr Horomia's hand in the Gisborne and East Cape area.
And a former contender for the Maori Party nomination, Ngahiwi Tomoana, said it could be close. Mr Horomia was working "very, very hard and he is not taking anything for granted".
Anyone who went up against him would have to work twice as hard, said Mr Tomoana, who is also chairman of the Kahungunu iwi authority.
Mr Fox's competition will be named at a hui today in Hastings - though there are suggestions that there may be procedural challenges to his nomination. The four women thought to have also put their names forward are Gisborne District councillor Atareta Poananga, who stood for the Maori Party in 2005, Mereana Pittman, Keriana Tawhiwhirangi and Glenis Philip-Barbara.
Mr Fox stood as an independent candidate against Mr Horomia in 1999 but Mr Horomia, a new candidate then, won by just 695 votes (NZ First's Rana Waitai, a police commander, had taken it from Labour in 1996).
Mr Fox subsequently made moves to set up his own Maori party in 2001 but was diverted when the Government asked him to take a leading role in setting up Maori Television.
Atareta Poananga reduced Mr Horomia's majority from 10,359 to 1932 in the last election.
She was also No 3 on the Maori Party list but upset the party after the election with her public criticism of how it had conducted consultation hui.
Mr Tomoana said if Mr Fox got the nod, the contest would come down to a party contest rather than personality.
"They are both whakapapa [family ties] to both iwi [Ngati Porou and Ngati Kahungunu], they both have high profiles in both areas, so I think it is going to be decided on party politics, not personalities."
Mr Tomoana said Mr Fox was "reinvigorated and re-energised" now, "so this may be the time".
His face was known in every house in the area.