By JOHN ARMSTRONG and FRANCESCA MOLD
The Act party is in danger of "fizzling out into oblivion" unless it finds a way of humanising its message to voters, says the woman fighting for its presidency.
Catherine Judd, Wellington public relations consultant, is considered the underdog in a closely fought, two-person race for the top job, left vacant by the party's co-founder, Sir Roger Douglas.
Her opponent is Hawkes Bay farmer John Ormond, a long-serving party member and Act candidate for Tukituki at the last election.
The pair will learn the outcome of their presidency bids when the results of a postal ballot of members is revealed at Act's annual conference on Sunday.
The conference begins tonight in Christchurch.
Ms Judd, who has the support of Sir Roger and co-founder Derek Quigley, told the Herald the presidential race had taken place at a critical time for the party. It was at a crossroads and risked fizzling out unless it worked out how to recapture people who had drifted away.
"We need to build up the membership and that involves explaining what Act stands for in an effective way. Unless we can do that, I don't think Act will survive."
Ms Judd said Sir Roger's resignation from the presidency was the beginning of a changeover in leadership that was inevitable as the party matured.
It has been proposed that Sir Roger and Mr Quigley become "patrons," giving them the right to attend board meetings without the duties of attending every one.
The move needs to be ratified by the conference, and some are picking a "yes" to Sir Roger but a "no" to Mr Quigley.
Ms Judd said she fully supported Richard Prebble as Act leader, but it was important to start identifying potential replacements who could be recruited and nurtured by the party for future leadership roles.
Ms Judd said she wanted to focus on humanising and injecting passion into the party, which was often seen as being too clinical.
Mr Ormond said Act was still a relatively young party but had arrived at a point where it needed to move forward again.
He said Act had allowed itself to be positioned by the media and political opponents at the far right of the spectrum.
"Yet our basic philosophies traverse the whole spectrum of political thinking in this country."
In a discussion document titled Platform for Reform, Mr Ormond said Act needed to learn that top-down, corporate-styled centralism would not work.
The party needed to develop the virtues of respect, openness, transparency and accountability.
The theme of this weekend's annual conference is finding a way to boost New Zealand's per capita income to a ranking of 10th among OECD countries before the year 2010.
New Zealand is ranked 21st out of 29 OECD countries in terms of per capita income.
Workshops will be held at the conference, including discussions on the economy, education, social welfare, the environment, immigration, justice and race relations.
The youth arm of the party, known as the Act-ivists, will also talk to the conference about how its policies can be marketed to young New Zealanders with the aim of winning new votes at the next election.
The Activists will also analyse their policy position on cannabis reform.
The party's caucus has in the past favoured decriminalisation in principle.
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