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Polls suggest Northcote by-election is close

Author
Newstalk ZB Staff,
Publish Date
Wed, 30 May 2018, 12:59PM
Dan Bidois and Shannan Halbert are the National and Labour candidates for the by-election. (Photo / NZ Herald)
Dan Bidois and Shannan Halbert are the National and Labour candidates for the by-election. (Photo / NZ Herald)

Polls suggest Northcote by-election is close

Author
Newstalk ZB Staff,
Publish Date
Wed, 30 May 2018, 12:59PM

The race for Auckland's Northcote by-election is heating up.

Labour Party polling puts its candidate Shanan Halbert just 2.1 percent behind National's Dan Bidois.

National's Jonathan Coleman took the seat in last year's general election with a more than six thousand majority, but the Labour polls suggest the seat is now highly marginal.

National leader Simon Bridges is in Northcote today drumming up support.

"Reality is you can never take these things for granted. It will be close and we will be working hard for a win, because we just think we've got a candidate who will be a champion for the area in Dan Bidois."

Labour is tempering expectations that they could flip the electorate.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told Mike Hosking yesterday it would be defying history if they did win.

"When you're not the incoming holder of a seat and when you're in Government, I don't think a seat has been taken under those circumstances since the 1930s."

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