Peters to name preferred partner before polling day

Winston Peters

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has backed-off from his refusal to say how he will handle post-election negotiations and now says he will make a statement before polling day.

"I am going to leave nobody in any doubt as to where we stand as a party in 2005," he said in Picton yesterday.

Mr Peters also said he was "not going to buy a car over the phone site unseen either" an indication he wanted to know more about what deals Labour and National would offer.

It is the second time in two days that Mr Peters has indicated the party would reveal its intentions before the end of the campaign.

On Tuesday, Mr Peters told a leaders' forum at the Press newspaper in Christchurch that he would clarify the party's position sooner than he did in the 1996 election - when he conducted nine weeks of post-election coalition talks with Labour and National before finally deciding to back National.

When asked if he would clarify the party's position before the election, Mr Peters said: "Well, if there's not clarity before the end of the campaign, then it would be a total waste of strategy wouldn't it?"

Mr Peters and New Zealand First could choose to indicate a preference for Labour or National, or, the more likely scenario, of saying it will stay out of a formal coalition agreement, and will instead offer support to the governing party from the cross-benches in exchange for policy concessions.

Mr Peters has been criticised for not saying whether NZ First will support National or Labour after the election.

In the latest Herald DigiPoll, 51.2 per cent of voters said they wanted New Zealand First to declare its preference before the election, while 29.6 per cent thought he shouldn't and 19.2 were undecided.

During his speeches in Nelson and Blenheim yesterday, Mr Peters repeatedly said the only people who ever asked him about the party's coalition preferences were the media.

But as he was telling the Nelson audience this, a women yelled out, "I want to know who you will go with Winston."

Mr Peters either did not hear the woman or ignored her remark.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said she was not relying on Mr Peters' making a decision before the election. "I'm not holding my breath because Winston has found more ways of jumping on the head of a pin than any other person ever born."

Mr Peters continued his attack on what he terms National and Labour's "hidden agendas" yesterday.

He criticised Labour for social engineering and said National had a hidden right wing agenda.

"What I am saying to New Zealanders is that if you want to stop the extremists on both sides ... if you want to rein them and get some sound middle-of-the-road government, then we are the party."