Mr Beetham ponders election stance

Press, 26 December 1986, Page 4

Mr Beetham ponders election stance

PA Wellington The former Democratic Party leader, Mr Bruce Beetham, may not stand for the Democratic Party but for Social Credit at Rangitikei in next year’s General Election.

Mr Beetham has said that if the East Coast Bays member of Parliament, Mr Garry Knapp, stands for the Democrats at the next election, Mr Beetham would not stand for the same party but under the Social Credit banner.

The party’s president, Mr Stefan Lipa, has announced that Mr Knapp

and others have had their candidacy endorsed by regional and national levels of the party. ~

Mr Beetham said on Wednesday that under the party’s constitution the minutes of the executive meeting, at which the candidacies .would have been endorsed, would have to be ratified by the party’s council. The council represents the entire party and its next meeting is set for early February. Mr Beetham said it might be held later.

He said he was waiting to see what the council

decided. He believed it would “reluctantly” endorse the decision to have Mr Knapp stand for the party because he was a sitting member of Parliament.

Mr Lipa said that he would never try to prejudge what the council or a party conference would decide but in his experience with the council since 1972 it had always endorsed the decision of the executive.

He said that "naturally we would like Mr Beetham to stand for Rangitikei under the Democratic banner.”