Boag likely to quit in a year's time

11.30am

National party president Michelle Boag, blamed by some MPs for the party's crushing election defeat, today ruled out resigning but said she would probably not seek re-election in a year's time.

She has been accused of failing to raise enough funds, lifting her own profile at party leader Bill English's expense and a general lack of organisation.

Ms Boag refuted those claims and said that when she took over the presidency a year ago the party was "very run down and weak".

"We built it up very quickly... unfortunately we didn't have time to translate that into electoral support," she said on National Radio.

"We should have rebuilt quicker. The election was forced on us, the timing made things much more difficult."

Mr English yesterday announced an independent review of the party's election campaign, saying he knew there were some "strong feelings" within the party about Ms Boag's role.

Ms Boag is now referring to "our" review and said she and Mr English were keen to get on with it.

Mr English will put his leadership on the line at a caucus meeting tomorrow, when he is expected to be given a vote of confidence, but there is no mechanism for the party to test Ms Boag's hold on her job other than at an annual conference and the last one was three weeks ago.

"The party elects the president, not the caucus. That is a principle National holds dear," Ms Boag said.

"The messages I'm getting from the party organisation are very clear -- they want me to hang in there and help them through this difficult process.

"I've said I will take my share of responsibility for what happened and it's highly unlikely I will be a candidate after the next 12 months.

"I think it would be disastrous to turn my back now."

Among the National MPs who have turned on Ms Boag is Bob Simcock, who lost the Hamilton East seat.

He said today the campaign ran into "severe problems" because of her presidency and he was fielding complaints from National supporters and the public on the campaign trail.

"I think there came a point when she appeared on television and people just said, 'We don't want to hear from her any more'," he said.

Mr Simcock said the way she handled the cull of several experienced, long-serving MPs was "grossly ill-judged" and prior to that the caucus had been very united.

Christchurch list MP Alec Neill, who missed out on getting back into Parliament, said Ms Boag had to be "the first casualty" of the party's election rout.

"There will be blood on the floor, there's no doubt heads will roll," he said.

"We had this so-called rejuvenation.... I think 'Stop the Rot' was an absolute failure. It was an experiment that went badly wrong."

Pakuranga MP Maurice Williamson, who retained his seat, said Ms Boag had claimed she would raise funds and put National back into contention, and had not delivered.

"John Hart lost in the World Cup at semifinal level and went straight away," he said.

"If John Mitchell loses in the first round of the World Cup to Tanganyika 105-nil he will have tendered his resignation before he gets to the show."

Mr Williamson said "straight moral authority" suggested Ms Boag should resign this week.

- NZPA

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