By AUDREY YOUNG
Alliance leader and Deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton is expected to be expelled from his own party today and replaced by MP Laila Harre.
Both will claim the title, as the long-expected farce becomes a reality.
In Parliament, Mr Anderton will continue to call himself Alliance leader, despite no
longer being a member of the party.
Laila Harre will call herself the true leader of the Alliance but will avoid a potentially destabilising fight for the Government by not contesting the title in Parliament.
It will be the second time Mr Anderton has been involved in an expulsion. He successfully fought the Labour caucus move to expel him in 1988, but left anyway.
He will not contest today's decision.
Five other defecting Alliance MPs are also expected to get the boot today from the party's governing council meeting in Mangere.
It is the first full meeting of the council since Mr Anderton said he would set up another party next month to contest the next election with deputy leader Sandra Lee, Corrections Minister Matt Robson, and Democrat MPs Grant Gillon and John Wright.
All plan to remain Alliance MPs. Under the anti-party-hopping law, they would have to resign from Parliament if they resigned from the Alliance.
Phillida Bunkle has publicly declared she supports Mr Anderton and Sandra Lee and is also likely to be expelled.
The Herald understands that Christchurch MP Kevin Campbell, who was originally aligned with Mr Anderton, has restored his tithe to the Alliance but is torn between the two factions and is not expected to be expelled.
Laila Harre has the support of two other MPs, Liz Gordon and Mana Motuhake leader Willie Jackson.
The council is expected to sign off a new election campaign strategy produced by president Matt McCarten.
The party is likely to focus its Auckland campaign on Laila Harre's bid to win the Waitakere seat.
