The National Party is desperately trying to find a replacement for Dunedin-based list MP Katherine Rich, who is retiring from politics at the next election.
Mrs Rich has been showing the flag for National for the past nine years and has helped lift the party vote in the traditional Labour voting electorates of Dunedin North and Dunedin South.
Even with a swing to National, it is unlikely the two Dunedin electorates will be lost to Labour.
Behind-the-scenes work is being carried out by National Party officials to find a candidate for Dunedin North, the electorate where Mrs Rich has stood as a candidate in the past two elections.
Without a Dunedin-based MP, National would have to rely on deputy leader and Clutha-Southland MP Bill English and Otago MP Jacqui Dean, who is likely to become the MP for the new and large Waitaki electorate, to be ‘‘buddy MPs'' for the city.
Given both will have huge electorates, to service, it is unlikely Dunedin will receive much attention without a local list MP.
Consultant Conway Powell has already been selected as the candidate for Dunedin South and will contest the election against new Labour candidate Clare Curran, who got the nomination ahead of sitting MP David Benson-Pope.
Mr Powell was ranked 55 on the National Party list at the last election but managed to increase the party vote substantially through a campaign based on visiting about 5000 households.
At present, he remains National's best option of becoming a locally-based list MP.
Mr Powell said when contacted that he had worked hard on party policy development during the past three years and he wanted to take the next step to Parliament.
‘‘I'm not here just to make up the numbers. I am here to get into Parliament.''
Mr Powell expected to be involved full-time on election campaign duties from May.
With National being so far ahead in the polls, if an election was held today, the party would have 69 MPs.
However, most pundits believe Labour will close the gap closer to the election, which could be as early as October 18.
