Green Party Co-Leader Rod Donald has been selected as the Green candidate for the Banks Peninsula seat and says he will be campaigning hard for the party vote at this year's election.

"We have set ourselves a party vote target of 15%, double our 1999 result," Rod Donald said today.

"I am confident we can achieve that goal. We have our successful track record in Parliament to stand on as a party and locally I will also be able to spend more time in the electorate because we now have seven MPs to share the campaign load around the country.

"However, my biggest challenge will be to persuade all those people who voted just for me at the last election to also vote Green with their party vote.

Statistics from the 1999 election show that 2770 people voted for Rod Donald with their electorate vote but not Green with their party vote. However, altogether 14.7% of Banks Peninsula voters either voted Green or for Mr Donald or both.

"If we can get the message through that voting Green with your party vote is the best way for voters to re-elect me and to increase the size of the Green Team in parliament then we have almost reached our goal.

First elected as a List MP in 1996, this will be the third time Rod Donald has stood in Banks Peninsula.

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