Election candidates total 450; 87 seats

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33064, 3 November 1972, Page 1

Election candidates total 450; 87 seats

More persons than ever are seeking election to Parliament. On November 25, 87 seats, three more than three years ago, will be contested. Nominations total 450; three years ago the figure was 303.

The three parties which contested all seats in the last election —National, Labour, and Social Credit —have again put forward candidates for all seats.

The New Democrat Party, which consists ■ mainly of former Credit Political League members, missed a full, team by one because of “a rotten bit of luck,” according to its leader,; Mr J. B. O’Brien. A new party, the New Zea-; land Values Party, has 421 nominees, many of whom are: under 30, and who are aiming at the votes of young people,; conservationists, and ecolo- j gists. There are 16 candidates standing for the Liberal Reform Party and one of them is a “double-acceptor.” The other candidate who is standing for two seats is Mr; O. V. Beaumont, the princi-i pal of a Christchurch whole-: sale grocery chain, who has:

formed the Union Memberj ship Optional Party because J he does not believe in com--1 pulsory unionism. He will be ! a candidate in Papanui and Rangiora. He has a support- ■ ing candidate in Sydenham. No Communists The Communist Party, which has put up candidates . in the past, usually in safe . Labour urban seats, is absent ■'from the list. A candidate’s deposit of $2O ! —a figure set in 1890—may • I be forfeit if he fails to gain ■ one-quarter of the total votes received by the successful > candidate. The most unusual candidate i for many years is Mr M. Mouse standing for the Mad ; Hatter’s Tea Party in PaLi • merston North; but Mr C. M.' • Hansen, who will oppose the • Leader of the Opposition (Mr 1 ; Kirk) in Sydenham, has the

longest party affiliation—- “ Anti - Maori - violence proApartheid” — which he put on his nomination paper having said earlier that he would be standing for the Monoi cratic Party. Three years ago |he was a “New 7 Zealand i Economic” candidate. ‘Flat out" Some prospective candidates, including those labelled Gay Lib and Surrealist, who had publicised their intention to stand did not put their nominations in by noon yesterday, nor did the Nga Tamatoa candidates come in for the four Maori seats. In Blenheim Mrs A. K. Berryman, the wife of the chairman of the local branch of the Liberal Reform Party, missed nomination for Marlborough, because the couple were “flat out getting sheep ready for the show.” ; Another Liberal Reform couple have had to change I roles. Hrs T. C. Bunny was to have contested the Wai,rarapa seat but her husband will stand instead because if she was a candidate she would have to leave her teaching job at Makora College until after the election. Not on roll She will be going to all her husband’s political meetings —and she will be doing most of the talking. The New Democrat Party had intended to have a European woman who lives in Napier stand for the Southern Maori seat, but when she went to the electoral office at Waipukurau yesterday, it was found that one of the persons who had nominated her was not on the roll. Mr O’Brien said there were plenty of others available to sign the nomination, but they could not be reached by noon. The New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation had said earlier that consideration of television time would be renewed after a full “ticket” was nominated.

Simplest paper “There will be hell to pay if we don’t get it,” he said. The most sought-after seats

are Eden and Tamaki. each with eight candidates. Mr J. Rae held Eden for National in 1969 by only 67 votes. He has retired. The Minister of Finance (Mr Muldoon) had 6088 votes as a majority in Tamaki last time.

Hamilton East and Rangiora each have seven candidates, 21 electorates have six, 45 have five, and 16 have four. Southern Maori has the! simplest voting paper with three names.

There are 37 women among the nominations, and this is also a record. Two are in opposition in several -electorates; in Hamilton West there are three women.