Candidate roundup

It's the eve of Election '05. If political parties were going to provide the interested public with web site pictures and profiles of their candidates, they should have done so by now. I grade each political party according to how well they have achieved this simple task.

99 MP
The 99 MP Party has only two candidates, but they don't tell us who their candidates are or say anything about them. But you will find pictures of both if you're prepared to look.

ACT
A nice new web site which is good in parts. The good parts are where they have pictures and profiles of their electorate candidates on their electorate pages. The bad parts are where they have no picture, no profile, and the candidate is not named or is incorrectly named or pictured. Taranaki-King Country candidate Richard Steele, for example, is a group of cows. North Shore? "Your ACT candidates are Deborah Coddington MP and Nick Kearney," says ACT. In fact, Deborah Coddington isn't standing.

ALCP
The ALCP have got their act together, sort of, in time for the election. Their web site has a nice new look and feel, and features pictures and profiles of their six electorate candidates. For the seven remaining list only candidates, "profiles and photos in progress," promises the ALCP.

Alliance
The Alliance has a list of its electorate and list candidates. No candidate profiles. There are a handful of candidate photos on the "Spokespeople" page, which is broken, as it has been for months.
"Warning: mysql_close(): 6 is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in /home/www/alliance/displayinfo.php3 on line 15," says the Alliance.

Anti-Capitalist Alliance
The Anti-Capitalist Alliance have a web site, last updated 12/06/05. No candidate profiles, no candidate pictures. No incentive.

Christian Heritage
Christian Heritage have pictures and profiles for all their candidates. Can't have been too difficult, they have only 6 candidates this time. Good effort.

Communist League
Two candidates, no web site. Poor collective effort.

Democrats
Twenty nine candidates, a short blurb about each one, only two candidate photos on a different page. Their "official Web Portal" is not as impressive as it sounds.

Destiny NZ
Forty two candidates, forty two profiles, forty two pictures. Identical suits and identical head tilt angles. Excellent work.

Direct Democracy 32 candidates, 22 candidate photos, 11 candidate profiles. Prize for the candidate with the best middle name: Thankyoufornotbreeding.

Equal Values
One candidate, no party list, no photo, no profile.

Green A good effort. 55 out of 57 candidates pictured. Prize for the candidate with the best wild, staring eyes.

Human Rights
Two candidates, no party list, no web site.

Labour
Pictures of all 81 Labour candidates. And, to swell the surplus even further, featured on Labour's new candidates page are 7 "candidates" who are neither on the party list nor standing for an electorate: Grant Duffy, Erin Ebborn-Gillespie, Ghazala Anwar, Kelly-Ann Harvey, Ai Lian Su, Paul Gibson, Camille Nakhid.

Libertarianz
28 candidates, 23 pictures, 22 profiles. Hmm, not bad.

Maori 53 candidates, 30 pictures, 22 profiles. Hmm, not good. Prize for the candidate with the smallest picture.

National
65 candidates, 65 pictures, 65 profiles. Top stuff.

Economic Euthenics
One candidate, no party list, no web site.

NZ First
There's a party list, but profiles and pictures only of the 13 existing MPs. Hey, what did you expect? It's all about Winston. It's not about Brent.

NZ Family Rights
18 candidates, a party list, but no web site.

NZ Republicans
2 candidates, 2 pictures, 2 profiles. Excellence on a small scale.

One NZ
6 candidates, a party list, 2 pictures, no profiles. Feeble.

Progressive
54 candidates, 51 pictures, 54 profiles. "No fuss, no trouble, just getting the job done and getting results," says Jim.

Rangitikei First
One candidate, no party list, no web site.

Republic of NZ
6 candidates (or 7, if you count the mysterious Gray Phillips), a party list, no pictures, no profiles. Big zero.

Restore All Things In Christ
One candidate, no party list, no web site.

United Future 67 candidates, 55 pictures, 55 profiles. Could do better. Prize for the candidate with the greenest hair.