New Aitutaki by-election candidate expected by March 6
The president of the Cook Islands Democratic Party says a new candidate for the rescheduled by-election on Aitutaki is expected to be announced by the end of next week.
Transcript
The president of the Cook Islands Democratic Party says a new candidate for the rescheduled by-election on Aitutaki is expected to be announced by the end of next week.
Following the sudden death of the Democratic Party's candidate, Kete Ioane, the by-election for the Vaipae-Tautu constituency has been moved to take place on March 31st.
The party's president, Sean Willis, told Leilani Momoisea the constituency is expected to select a new candidate by March 6th.
SEAN WILLIS: We have to adhere to the Democratic Party Constitution, which states that the constituency shall select their candidate and forward it through to the central party for confirmation.
LEILANI MOMOISEA : Following the death of Mr Ioane, it must be very difficult for whoever takes up the reins there to campaign. How will the party campaign in light of that?
SW: Mr Ioane is a very hard person to replace. He was very well liked and has high support from within the community. We were very confident at the time when he was going into the by-election, we were confident that we would win that. But now we've had to move on and replacing him with someone new is very hard with such short notice, because the by-election is on the 31st of March. It just kind of ends up suiting the government candidate because at this stage, they're just dropping off all this Chinese machinery to all the outer islands, and that of course could sway a few voters.
LM: Do you know how many people have put their name forward?
SW: The central committee keeps out totally. We give the constituency committee free reign to do it within the constitution, so we're not being seen as trying to interfere with the selection process.
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