Brash stands firm against deals with small parties

Helen Clark, seen here campaigning at Avondale Markets yesterday, said small parties were refusing to confirm who they would back. Phil Walter / Getty Images

National leader Don Brash today continued to rule out any deals with smaller parties despite a warning it could cost his party power.

Dr Brash could throw a lifeline to its obvious coalition partner, Act, by urging National voters in Epsom to vote for Act leader Rodney Hide.

Polls consistently have Act polling well under the crucial 5 per cent threshold and, if it does not secure a seat, the party is headed for political oblivion.

That could leave National with one less option for a coalition partner.

Despite that, Dr Brash this morning continued to rule out a deal.

"We're not planning any deals at all and I think it's extraordinarily unlikely that the (National Party) board would change its view on that," he told National Radio.

"It's certainly not my recommendation to do so."

Auckland University political scientist Raymond Miller warned National's stance could result in it being unable to govern even if it won the most votes come Saturday.

National did not want to help the smaller parties in case they did not end up delivering the support it needed in a coalition, leading to a catch-22 situation, Dr Miller said.

"(But) the problem could be that National could end up with, say, 42 or 43 per cent of the vote and then turn around and find that it has no coalition partners or no support parties either that are willing to put it in Government," he said.

"It could well be that we end up with National getting more votes than Labour and yet Labour being in a stronger position to form a government."

Polls suggested Act -- and possibly New Zealand First -- would not return to Parliament but that was up to the voters, Dr Brash said.

"The polls would suggest that neither of them may be there, but the people of Epsom will make that judgment, I guess, when they decide to vote for Richard Worth or Rodney Hide," he said.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said she was not surprised the race was so close.

"Obviously it is very, very tight and my clear message this week is going to be, if people want the Helen Clark-led government it's very important to vote for it," she told National Radio.

"There are small parties out there who won't really say which way they'll go and if people value the kind of leadership that I've given and the kind of policies that Labour has... then there's one choice and that's to vote for it."

Three polls released yesterday showed the election too close to call. National led in two and Labour in one.

A Television One/Colmar Brunton Poll had National with 41 per cent support, narrowly ahead of Labour on 39 per cent.

Two snap polls, by the Herald on Sunday and The Sunday StarTimes, respectively had Labour on 42.1 per cent and National on 38.5, and National on 44.1 per cent and Labour on 37.2.

The snap polls had much smaller samples than the Television One poll and larger margins of error.

- NZPA