Green's draft list favours youth, and poll shows more will win seats

The Greens are the first party to name their contenders for the September election, issuing a draft list which favours youthful candidates.

On the basis of the Herald-Digipoll survey published today, 17 Green candidates would get into Parliament.

The provisional list was decided by party delegates and candidates and will be finalised in a member's vote in May.

The Herald -DigiPoll survey showed the Greens would get their highest party vote of 13.1 per cent if an election was held tomorrow, and would gain three new seats.

If the draft rankings released yesterday remained unchanged, the three new MPs would be James Shaw, Marama Davidson and Barry Coates.

Mr Shaw and first-term MP Julie-Anne Genter were the biggest winners in the reshuffled rankings, each rising five places.

Ms Genter has led the party's attacks on National's transport policies, in particular its multi-billion-dollar highways, and will stand in the battleground seat of Epsom.

Mr Shaw rose to 10th in the rankings.

The 39-year-old is seen as a bright, business-savvy prospect for the party because of his experience in working with big companies such as BP through his British-based management consultancy firm.

He replaced Sue Kedgeley as candidate in Wellington Central. Although he won fewer votes than his predecessor in 2011, placing third, he helped the Greens win a larger share of the party vote than Labour in the electorate.

Ms Davidson is a former Human Rights Commission adviser who represented the Greens at the Ikaroa-Rawhiti byelection, where she came fourth with 11 per cent of the vote.

Mr Coates has been the executive director at Oxfam New Zealand for 10 years. He graduated with a master's in management from Yale and has been in charge of non-government organisation campaigns on climate change and sustainability.

Current MPs David Clendon and Steffan Browning dropped the most in the new rankings. But according to the poll, both would be re-elected in September.

Two MPs from the party's hard left, Denise Roche and Catherine Delahunty, fell slightly in the list rankings.

Eugenie Sage rose to fourth after hard-working performances in her conservation, local government and resource management portfolios.

Members will vote on a final list next month, and after reshuffling for gender and ethnicity ratios the final list will come out in May.

Greens party list

1 Metiria Turei (n/c)
2 Russel Norman (n/c)
3 Kevin Hague (n/c)
4 Eugenie Sage (up 2)
5 Catherine Delahunty (down 1)
6 Gareth Hughes (up 1)
7 Kennedy Graham (down 2)
8 Julie-Anne Genter (up 5)
9 Jan Logie (n/c)
10 James Shaw (up 5)
11 Holly Walker (up 1)
12 David Clendon (down 4)
13 Denise Roche (down 2)
14 Mojo Mathers (n/c)
15 Marama Davidson (new)
16 Steffan Browning (down 6)
17 Barry Coates (new)
18 John Hart (new)
19 Jack McDonald (up 11)
20 Richard Leckinger (down 3)