The National Party has announced its candidate for the upcoming Northland by-election on March 28th, triggered by the resignation of National MP Mike Sabin, who is rumoured to be facing allegations of having personal issues.
In a closed-door meeting early this afternoon, Northland representatives of the party reportedly settled on police officer, drug educator, and former MP Mike Sabin as their “best hope” of retaining the electorate.
This decision was announced at 4pm this afternoon.
Prime Minister John Key welcomed the decision, telling media that Sabin – who has previously represented the Northland electorate in the period between 2011 and last week – was a “reputable” and “credible” candidate who would “almost certainly” lead National to victory at the end of next month.
“Yeah, I’m quite comfortable with the choice,” he told Newstalk ZB this evening. “I think, really, when you factor in experience, the short notice on which we had to find a candidate, he really is the only man for the job.”
Sabin, who has grown a moustache, gave a brief speech to party members after his selection this morning, telling them he was “honoured” to be selected as their candidate, and promised them it would be “better than last time.”
“I have certainly grown a lot since then,” he told them.
The Labour Party has yet to nominate anybody, and says it intends to wait until election night to select someone to concede to Sabin.