Winston Peters is never far from controversy and, not long after pundits were writing off his chances of a political comeback, polls show he's (again) on track to be the kingmaker of New Zealand's Parliament.
So, who is the veteran politician whose career has been far from dull?
Background
Peters was born on April 11, 1945, in Whangārei. His father was Māori and his mother was Scottish.
He went to Whangārei Boys' and Dargaville High schools and graduated from Auckland University with qualifications in arts and law.
Peters worked as a teacher and later a barrister, before entering politics in the mid 1970s.
Political background
In 1975, Peters unsuccessfully stood for National in the Northern Māori electorate (now known as Te Tai Tokerau, currently held by Labour deputy leader Kelvin Davis).
Peters entered Parliament in controversial fashion in 1978, winning the Hunua seat on the back of a High Court decision that found 500 votes for Labour's Malcolm Douglas shouldn't have been counted.
While Peters was ousted from Hunua in 1981, he re-entered three years later after winning Tauranga.
After the National Party's 1990 election win, Peters became Māori Affairs Minister.
However, he was demoted in 1991 - which subsequently led to his resignation from the party and forced a by-election in Tauranga where he collected 90 percent of the vote.
Peters formed New Zealand First ahead of the 1993 election and went on to hold Tauranga until 2005.
After National entered a coalition with NZ First following the 1996 election, Peters became deputy Prime Minister. However, he was sacked by then-PM Jenny Shipley in 1998 after she rolled Jim Bolger.
At the 1999 election, NZ First only received 4.3 percent of the vote - but remained in Parliament by virtue of Peters retaining Tauranga by the barest of margins.
And, despite bouncing back with 10.38 percent in 2002, Helen Clark's Labour Party was able to cut off Peters' path to power.
But, in 2005, he entered a confidence and supply agreement with Labour and was awarded the foreign affairs portfolio.
When National seized power at the 2008 election, NZ First was booted from Parliament after the party fell below the 5 percent threshold and Peters lost Tauranga to National's Simon Bridges.
But, as Peters so often does, he bounced back to collect 6.59 percent of the vote in 2011 - careening NZ First back into Parliament, albeit in Opposition.
Opposition was where Peters would stay for another election cycle - then 2017 came along. NZ First won 7.2 percent of the vote in that election, securing nine seats in Parliament.
Peters, once again, held the balance of power to decide the next Government and Prime Minister - between Labour's Jacinda Ardern and National's Bill English.
After nearly a month of negotiations, Peters chose to enter a coalition with Labour - while the Green Party joined their Cabinet table on a confidence and supply agreement. Peters was awarded the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister roles.
In a sense of déjà vu, NZ First failed to receive 5 percent of the vote at the 2020 election and was again out of Parliament - just like after the party's previous coalition with Labour.
But Peters has remained staunch on sticking around and getting NZ First back into Parliament again. With the precedent he set by doing it in both 2008 and 2011, the veteran politician is again defying the odds - based on recent polling - and could again hold the balance of power in a week's time.
But it's unlikely to be with Labour this time - both have ruled each other out.
What he wants to achieve
Peters has stuck with his usual controversial rhetoric this election campaign and has faced accusations of race-baiting. However, he recently told Newshub Nation he didn't believe he was.
Nonetheless, his election slogan to "take back our country" appears to be resonating with voters - 5.2 percent of whom said they would vote for NZ First in the latest Newshub-Reid Research poll.
Peters is running on promises to stop funding for the Auckland right rail project while scrapping what he describes as "secret social engineering" and "separatism".
"Today there's an awful tribalism in New Zealand politics, ignoring realities, replacing them with politically extremist ideologies, where political party comes first and, our country, second," he said during his March 'state of the nation' speech. "There is a full-scale attack being waged on New Zealanders' culture, identity and sense of belonging. And the only way they can achieve this is by attacking the bonds that used to hold our society together and to misrepresent the facts behind our shared history."
