Greens, Labour urge electorate to counter tactical voting for Act

John Banks (left) wants to beat National's Paul Goldsmith for the Epsom seat so Act retains its presence in Parliament - where it would continue to support National. Photo / Herald On Sunday

In a move to counter Prime Minister John Key's tacit endorsement of Act's John Banks in Epsom, Labour is urging the people of the blue-ribbon seat not to split their candidate and party votes.

Labour's Epsom candidate, David Parker, said yesterday that if people liked him and Labour they should give him their electorate and party votes. The same went for Mr Banks and National's Paul Goldsmith.

The Green Party is taking a different tack by targeting the party vote and urging people to vote for the candidate they think will best represent Epsom.

Mr Parker said Labour had not changed its tactics in Epsom since Mr Key met Mr Banks for a chat over the teacups on Friday.

It was all but telling National supporters to cast their party vote for National and their electorate vote for Mr Banks to ensure Act was returned to Parliament to support a National government.

Labour leader Phil Goff has described Mr Key's tacit endorsement of Mr Banks as a rort of the electoral system, a view shared by Mr Parker, who believed the voters of Epsom were over tactical voting.

Mr Parker said the centre-left role in Epsom was not about promoting tactical voting but calling Mr Banks and Act leader Don Brash to account for their record.

"The outcome of Act and Epsom depends on National voters, not Labour voters. The Act Party is at 1 per cent because they are unpopular and it is unpopular because of how it has behaved and because of its record," Mr Parker said.

The Greens' Epsom candidate, David Hay, said Green and Labour voters were interested in strategic voting, and often mentioned a line from Peter Lange at a candidates' meeting in Mt Eden.

Mr Lange, brother of former Labour Prime Minister David Lange, told Mr Goldsmith he was going to "hold my nose" and vote National to cleanse Parliament of Act.

Mr Hay said: "I say it probably doesn't matter that much because Act is so despised by the New Zealand people, they are on 1 per cent and if they win Epsom that might be it, just John Banks."

In the 2008 election, Act leader Rodney Hide was re-elected with nearly 13,000 votes more than National candidate Richard Worth after being tacitly endorsed by Mr Key.

Candidate vote in 2008

21,102
Rodney Hide (Act)

8220
Richard Worth (National)

5112
Kate Sutton (Labour)

2787
Keith Locke (Green).