Internet Mana leaders to meet for post-mortem

Internet Party founder Kim Dotcom and leader Laila Harre are expected to meet up with Mana's ousted Te Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira tonight to discuss their ill-fated election campaign which insiders say went off the rails at the official launch.

The Internet Party itself will meet in coming weeks to decide its future but Ms Harre yesterday acknowledged its future chances of entering Parliament would be slimmer without a sitting MP such as Mr Harawira as a stepping-stone.

She refused to confirm when she and Mr Dotcom would meet Mr Harawira to discuss the Internet-Mana alliance's campaign but party sources confirmed it would be tonight.

She said the Internet Party, which has about 3500 members, would hold a general meeting to consider its own future in the next few weeks.

"From my point of view all options are open."

Asked whether those options included winding the party up, Ms Harre said she did not know whatall the options were at thispoint.

Contracts for party staff including Ms Harre's press secretary, Pam Corkery, and electoral law specialist Graeme Edgeler end shortly.

However, a party insider saidthat there was "an appetite from certain people" to carry on.

"Some of the candidates are very, very keen to continue."

Ms Harre said it was "very difficult for a party to win parliamentary representation without a sitting member of Parliament, we know that".

The extradition hearing of the party's founder and funder, Mr Dotcom, is now scheduled for March but Ms Harre said that was not a factor in the party's future.

"The party always had life beyond the circumstances of Kim's case. I certainly wouldn't have committed to it without that ... so I don't think that would have a bearing on the decision one way or the other."

However, Mr Dotcom's prominence in the final stages of the campaign, which Ms Harre acknowledged lost momentum, was "perhaps a double-edged sword".

"We'll see positives and negativesto that," Ms Harre said.

The party insider said it was "pretty clear the support plunged away as a result of the campaign launch".

The eventful August 24 Internet Mana launch saw Mr Dotcom make an apparent threat to hack Prime Minister John Key's credit rating and suggestions of tension between the two parties emerged.

"That was a bit of a turning point when Hone didn't show up, people started thinking there was a rift and Pam [Corkery] went ballistic at the media," the insider said.

Ms Harre said the media was "looking for a negative story about us at the campaign launch and we were in a no-win situation".

She said comments ahead of the launch by the Mana Party's Georgina Beyer critical of Mr Dotcom provided ammunition to critics "and that created a story that didn't actually exist".

However, the party insider said Mr Dotcom's prominence was an important feature of the campaign.

"If you wanted to rally support and you wanted to rally interest around something, wheeling out Hone Harawira and Laila Harre was never going to cut it, people wanted to hear from Kim."

He also said the relationship between the two parties had been an issue.

"The strange bedfellows thing did become problematic and slowed things down a bit."

Ms Harre yesterday said: "Despite all efforts from some in the media to present an alternative view, the relationship was very strong throughout the campaign and there is a lot of goodwill between the two leaders and parties."