By Audrey Young
Independent candidate Derek Fox is running a close contest against Labour's Parekura Horomia in the eastern Ikaroa-Rawhiti electorate, according to a DigiPoll survey.
Mr Fox, the Wairoa mayor and broadcaster, announced his candidacy just six weeks ago.
Mr Horomia is ahead on 34.6 per cent of the electorate vote, while
Mr Fox is on 31.7 per cent in the poll conducted for TVNZ's Marae.
The poll is the second in two weeks to suggest that Labour will struggle to recapture the Maori seats, after losing them all to New Zealand First in 1996. It also suggests there could again be a high degree of split voting in Maori seats.
Mr Horomia, an employment adviser, is already a shoo-in on the Labour list, which is an advantage to Mr Fox, whose supporters could still vote Labour on the party vote.
The Marae poll put NZ First MP Tutekawa Wyllie well ahead in the South Island-Wellington seat, Te Tai Tonga. But there and in Ikaroa-Rawhiti, Labour continues to out-poll others in the party vote, as it has done in every Maori-voter DigiPoll survey since NZ First went into coalition with National in 1996.
In the Ikaroa-Rawhiti poll, Labour got 57 per cent party support of Maori-roll voters and 53 per cent of Maori on the general roll.
Ikaroa-Rawhiti takes in East Coast, Hawkes Bay, Wairarapa and Manawatu, and is reconfigured from the present seat of Te Puku o te Whenua, held by NZ First-turned-Mauri Pacific MP Rana Waitai, who polled just 6.9 per cent.
NZ First's Wiremu Gudgeon polled 10.9 per cent, the Alliance's Des Ratima 4.2 per cent, Piri Wiri Tua's Dalvanius Maui Prime 3.9 per cent, Mana Maori's Tauni Sinclair 3.3 per cent and Act's Vicki Robin 2.9 per cent.
Education was the most important issue, a priority for 19.5 per cent of those polled, followed by unemployment (17.5 per cent), health (12.3 per cent) and taxes (2.8 per cent).
Treaty and land issues were deemed the most important by only 2.2 per cent. More than 27 per cent did not know what the most important issue was.
