October 11, 2022
Pati Māori the ticket for council hopefuls
Te Pati Māori president John Tamihere is encouraged by the party’s first foray into local body politics.
Seven of the nine people who stood under the party’s banner were elected at the weekend.
He says it’s an outstanding result, only made possible by the push to create Māori seats.
“This was an awakening election. We never got this until protest occurred up and down the country. We’ve only been able to organise ourselves in the last three to six months once the evidence came in so we are just awakening to our opportunities and it is going to take us some time to get out turnout up and our registers up,” Mr Tamihere says.
The next step is to get support for Rawiri Waititi’s members bill which would allow Māori to switch between the Māori and general electoral rolls at any time, including between local and general elections.