Llyod Burr (Newshub)
Wellington, February 26, 2018
The battle to take the leadership of the National Party is looking like a two-horse race between Amy Adams and Simon Bridges – but neither candidate has the numbers to win the job outright.
Neither wanted to comment Yesterday (Sunday), but they have both been confident.
“I have got really good support, I feel the momentum is building,” Mr Bridges previously said, while Ms Adams said, “I know I have good support.”
There are three others in the race too: Steven Joyce, Judith Collins and Mark Mitchell.
All of them have spent the weekend on the phone, doing the numbers and shoring up support.
The outlook
National has 56 MPs, meaning the magic number to get to is 29 votes.
On Sunday, this is what the numbers looked like:
Simon Bridges has around 23 votes, while Amy Adams is up there too with 22 MPs supporting her. In third place is Steven Joyce with five votes, then it is newbie Mark Mitchell with four votes and in last place is Judith Collins, with two votes – one is her own.
No one has an outright majority at the moment, meaning that the bottom placed candidate will drop off on each voting round until someone gets to 29.
High Stakes
A well-placed source in Camp Bridges told Newshub that it is very close to the line and that he is almost there. Camp Adams claimed the same, with a source telling Newshub that she will pick up a big chunk of support in the second vote.
There is a wildcard though: Steven Joyce.
His team rejects these numbers and told Newshub that it is not a two-horse race, but a three-horse race, and that Mr Joyce has a good shot.
Camp Collins also said Newshub’s numbers were wrong, and that she is doing significantly better than she was last week.
Mark Mitchell silent
As for Camp Mitchell, they were not picking up the phone.
Publicly, all of them claim they have the numbers. But someone is wrong and none of them is wanting to admit defeat until Tuesday.
Lloyd Burr is a political reporter for Newshub based in Wellington, covering stories from Parliament and across the lower North Island and upper South Island. Indian Newslink has published the above Report under a Special Agreement with www.rnz.co.nz
Pictures of Amy Adams, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Judith Collins and Mark Mitchell are from our digital library
