Two of the three minor party candidates standing in East Cape electorate have confirmed they are not seeking the electorate vote but are focused on raising awareness of their parties to secure voters’ party vote.

Following a Grey Power meet-the-candidates evening in Whakatāne recently, some attendees expressed surprise that not all candidates were interested in representing the electorate in parliament.

Green Party East Cape candidate Jordan Walker said they were focused on the party vote.

“I am not seeking the electorate vote, only the party vote for the Green Party,” they said.

“I’ve been pretty outspoken about this from the outset, however, it’s pretty difficult to get that messaging across.”

Opportunity Party candidate Cail Smith said he was also standing as a party-vote-only candidate.

“The main reason I supported running a party-vote-only campaign was that the party vote offered the clearest pathway to parliamentary representation for The Opportunity Party.”

However, ACT candidate Darrin Hawkes said he was standing for the electorate and keen to represent the region in Parliament.

“I am more than prepared to go to Wellington to promote East Cape.”

Hawkes said he would also welcome voters giving ACT their party vote.

“If a voter only wishes to give one vote to ACT, then my preference is they re-elect the current coalition and help it go further and faster by giving their party vote to ACT.”

Advance voting is now open, with voting closing at 7pm on November 7.

Voters can check their nearest voting location and its opening hours at vote.nz before heading out to vote.