The Labour Party has confirmed Charles Chauvel as its candidate for the Ohariu electorate at the next election.

The Labour Party has confirmed Charles Chauvel as its candidate for the Ohariu electorate at the next election. Mr Chauvel’s selection was announced by the Chair of the Ohariu Labour Electorate Committee, Mr Ash Bhasin, yesterday.

The confirmation meeting was held in Ngaio, and was attended by around 30 local Labour Party members, including a representative of the Party’s governing New Zealand Council.

Mr Bhasin said that the Party was very pleased to have Charles Chauvel as its candidate again for the 2008 election. “Charles ran an excellent campaign for Labour here in the last election, and we are confident that he will do so again next year. He has been a hard-working List MP for Labour in the Wellington region since he was elected to Parliament, and the Party looks forward to offering him our full support between now and the 2008 election.”

Chauvel said: "I am delighted to be running as Labour’s candidate for Ohariu again” said Chauvel. “People in the electorate have been very loyal to Labour. I want to make sure that we continue to deserve that loyalty. A strong economy; low unemployment; good schools, hospitals and public transport; Working for Families; KiwiSaver, sustainable environmental policies and a responsible foreign policy all stand at the core of Labour’s commitments to the people of the electorate. We will be mounting a vigorous “two ticks” campaign, both for the Party vote and for the electorate vote, to ensure that these policies continue.”

Charles Chauvel stood as Labour’s candidate in Ohariu-Belmont (the former name of the electorate) in 2005, when Labour’s Party vote increased by 3% and its electorate vote by 5%. These were the biggest improvements nationwide over the 2002 election results in a non-Labour held seat, and saw the sitting MP’s majority reduced from over 12,000 to under 8,000.

Chauvel, formerly a partner in international law firm Minter Ellison, is 38 years old. He has been a Labour List MP since 1 August 2005 when he replaced the Hon Jim Sutton, who retired to become NZ’s World Trade Ambassador. He is the Chairperson of Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee. The Ohariu electorate is much the same in composition as the old Ohariu-Belmont one, except that it takes in Chartwell and Crofton Downs from the former boundaries of Wellington Central, and loses Belmont to the Rimutaka electorate.

ENDS

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