Pro-cannabis and pirate parties have more of a chance of winning next month's Botany by-election than the Greens, which failed to register its candidate in time.
Nominations closed at midday today and the Electoral Commission has released its final list of the 10 candidates standing in the March 5 by-election.
They included Hussain Al-Saady of the Pirate Party of New Zealand and Leo Biggs of Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party.
And now we know why the Greens hate cars so much - read on:
Chief Electoral Officer Robert Peden confirmed that the Green candidate had not made it.
"A completed nomination form from the Green Party was not received before the legal deadline of noon today and therefore the Electoral Commission could not accept the nomination," he said.
Mr Leckinger was upset.
"Gutted. In one word gutted. My heart is broken for the Green Party folk in Botany who had pulled all this together. I am gutted, it's a real disappointment that I got stuck in traffic on Ti Rakau Drive."
Oh dear! First we have the Labour candidate publcily declaring that he cannot win in Botany, and now the Greens won't have a candidate. It looks pretty certain that Jami-Lee Ross will have a new job after March 5th.
Now all someone has to do is make sure that there is a traffic jam ready to go on the day that the Greens try to lodge their party list for the General Election later in the year; if only ...
15 comments:
What a muck up!
I hope the Green candidate is forced to campaign there anyway to make ammends for not getting his nomination in (translation: sh*t together!).
That said ... I watched Jamie-Lee Ross on television tonight and he was underwhelming! I expected more. He's hampered by the reality of National's very poor economic performance and sounded lame defending it.
News:
Green candidate does not know the time of day.
So where is the news in that?
David
It would appear at the very least Mr Ross is sufficiently aware of life in the real world to actually comply with the electoral law so far while the GP irriot should have taken the bus or lept on the bicycle I am sure he owns for promotional purposes.
I suppose they will go full on for the party vote HeHe.
The Green Party ex candidate will be pink going on red, how appropriate.
Toad has given his verdict here:
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2011/02/weirdness_in_botany.html
This must be even worse than Melissa Lee's gaffes in Mt Albert in 2009.
Over at Homepaddock, Zen Tiger, no Green at all, says this:
ZenTiger says:
February 8, 2011 at 10:37 pm
Rules are fine to a point, but not having the discretion to let an application in that was made before the deadline, but rejected and required a re-application on a minor point, it becomes stupid.
Particularly if it was just a matter of minutes.
Bureaucracies are the evil here, and justifying it as “well, that’s the rules” doesn’t make it the right answer.
Zen Tiger wins today's 'Green Star of Reasonableness'
Wot would one expect from a party which elects Catherine Delahunty as 6th on the list?
Rules are rules Robert. Over at Kiwiblog, Richard Leckinger does a mea culpa and comments thus:
# Richard Leckinger(1) Says:
February 8th, 2011 at 6:33 pm
DPF – Thanks for the left handed compliment. ;-) Unfortunate that I had to add to the weirdness in Botany, but there you go.
Yeah Bevan, I am upset. Gutted is the word I use to describe… But the buck stops here and I’ll wear it, to mix a few sayings. It was a hard lesson that I won’t need to learn again. Everyone acted in good faith except the traffic, so no one to blame but myself.
When I have settled enough to see the humour in it, I’ll come back here and share your mirth, Bevan. I, too like a bit of shadenfreude. Won’t be long. We Yanks have tough skins.
There was a similar incident in Palmy back in the late 1970's when a city councillor who was a bit of a grandstander made the same mistake. He got caught at a red light on the way to see the returning officer, and got there at one minute past the deadline; result; he had to wait three years before bhe got back onto council.
An idiot mistake from, well a greenie.
Had to be expected really. I also note that he is using the evil car that they hate so much and not a bike or public transport.
Glad he's gone burger.
Then another idiot mistake from labour (now that we have come to expect) - putting out a release that they know they cannot win.
The left is imploding. But then when you lack, well, pretty much everything it was only to be expected.
Oh dear, how sad, never mind.
Gosh, the right wing are haters. They've become more scathing in exact proportion to how badly the economy and jobs are tanking.
Tim Troll tries to take the traction to the tip.
Tiddums.
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