Pastor determined to dent PM’s caravan

Scoop News

Pastor determined to dent PM’s caravan

Ravi Musuku

Ravi Musuku the pastor from Hillsborough Baptist Church has secured National ticket for this year’s general elections to challenge Prime Minister Helen Clark in Mt. Albert electorate for the second time.

A congratulatory phone call from National Party president Judy Kirk confirmed his nomination. “You deserve it and you got it”, she said.

“There were quite a few candidates who were in the fray but my continued involvement in Mt. Albert paid off,” remarked a beaming Ravi. “I worked all these three years tirelessly and been doing what needs to be done” referring to his interaction with the grass roots.

He exudes confidence of making a serious dent in the Prime Minister’s camp this time around by increasing his party vote share for National by over 40%.

Although Prime Minister Helen Clark romped home by more than 14,000 votes in 2005 elections, Ravi secured 8488 party votes for National, an increase of over 100 percent from 2002 elections when Raewyn Bhana polled 3,490 against Ms. Clark’s 19,514.

Given the MMP environment his showing was solid in the party vote where it matters the most. There was also an element of surprise in the Labour territory when he returned 6169 electoral votes.

His list ranking in the last elections stood at 48 and this May he is tipped to move up the ladder, raising his list ranking and increasing his chances of entering the Parliament.

Ravi immigrated to New Zealand from India in 1998. His wife Alice is teaching in a primary school and they have two daughters, both pursuing university studies in Auckland.

The mood generally in the increasingly politically aware Indian community is of a growing concern of not having one of their own representatives in parliament. A great section in the camp wonders at this lack of representation despite having seen their numbers grow to over 100,000 in the last 150 years. Labour’s Dr. Ashraf Choudhary is the first south Asian MP to enter Beehive and comes from Pakistan.
Shanghai born Pansy Wong National MP is hoping for a repeat in Mt. Albert constituency of what happened in Australia when sitting Prime Minister John Howard lost his seat in the recent elections.

Syed Akbar Kamal is producer/director for nationwide current affairs programme Darpan-The Mirror on the satellite feed Stratos & Triangle TV.

www.teamworkproductions.co.nz

ENDS

© Scoop Media