Fresh Candidates in Wellington Central Churning for Upcoming Campaign

Words by Ethan Manera (he/him) 

The race is heating up for the Wellington Central seat in this year’s general election, which is shaping up to be a gripping political contest.

The electorate, widely considered a safe Labour seat, is currently represented by Labour’s Grant Robertson. Robertson has held the seat for 15 years, but announced in January that he won't contest it again in 2023. 

His former competitors for Wellington Central include National’s Nicola Willis and the Greens’ James Shaw, both of whom have also bowed out of the race for 2023. This has left the door open for a whole new cohort of candidates fighting to become the next Wellington Central MP.

The Green Party have selected Tamatha Paul as their candidate for the seat, hoping to take advantage of the high Green Party support in Wellington Central. In 2020, 30% of voters in the electorate voted Green.

Paul, former VUWSA President and current Wellington City Councillor, said she's excited for the campaign. “We're going hard and we're feeling pretty good that we've got a really good chance of winning,” she said. 

“I’ve been a massive advocate for the city. No one can disagree that we need more affordable housing, that our buses need to be reliable, that Wellington needs more of a cool and relevant vibe… these are universal things that will appeal to everybody,” she said

Labour have recently announced current list MP Ibrahim Omer as their candidate for the seat. Omer is a former union organiser who started work as a cleaner at VUW after arriving in Wellington as a refugee. 

Omer said that he's “the best person to take over from Grant and to represent Wellington central.”

“My story is a Wellington story. Make no mistake that I'm going to be an unapologetic voice for Wellington Central in Parliament.”

The National party are yet to select their candidate for the seat. A spokesperson for the party told ^Salient that they are “well underway in our Wellington Central selection” and that a candidate will be selected in mid-April.

The ACT Party also has not selected a candidate, telling Salient that a date for all their candidate announcements “hasn’t been decided yet, but will likely be June.”