Mana Party leader Hone Harawira has lambasted the latest Māori TV poll showing he's almost sure to lose Te Tai Tokerau to Labour's Kelvin Davis.
The poll was released on Tuesday evening ahead of Māori TV's final election debate, which pitted candidates Mr Harawira, Mr Davis, Legalise Cannabis' Maki Herbet and the Green's Godfrey Rudolph against each other.
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The poll placed Mr Davis as the preferred candidate at 67.4 percent, Mr Harawira trailing on 30.3 percent, with Mr Rudolph on just 2.3 percent.
Mr Harawira, dressed in a 'Vote 2 for 1 for Hone' t-shirt promoting his call for a deal to get the electorate seat, called the poll "a rubbish poll".
"I'll tell you why - it's a landline-based poll and 60 percent of the Te Tai Tokerau electorate is no longer on landline," he said in the debate.
His second issue was that it doesn't poll cellphones.
Instead, Mr Harawira says he's choosing to focus on a poll by Curia, which shows just a 10 point gap, however Mr Davis said Curia should be "discredited" as "National Party's pollsters".
He wasn't the only one to dismiss the poll, with Ms Herbet describing it as "shit". Her Legalise Cannabis party hadn't been registered in time for the poll and as a result, did not appear at all.
"The polls are shit," she said bluntly.
Māori TV said it was going to stand by its poll.
Addressing Mr Harawira's t-shirt, Mr Davis said there would be no deal for the electorate. A two-for-one deal would ask Te Tai Tokerau voters to choose Mr Harawira for their electorate vote, and Labour for the party vote.
Comfortably sitting second on Labour's list, Mr Davis is essentially guaranteed a seat in Parliament through the list. By trading the Te Tai Tokerau electorate, Mr Harawira and the Mana Party would be back in Parliament - something which otherwise is unlikely to happen.
If it doesn't win an electorate, a party needs at least 5 percent of the party vote to win a seat. The latest Newshub-Reid Research poll sees Mana at 0.1 percent.
"Any deal that looks too good to be true always is," Mr Davis said during the debate.
Newshub.
