2003 New Zealand National Party leadership election

The New Zealand National Party leadership election was an election for the National Party leadership position held in 2003.

2003 New Zealand National Party leadership election
28 October 2003
 
Candidate Don Brash Bill English
Popular vote 14 12
Percentage 53.84 46.16
Leader before election

Bill English

 Leader after election

Don Brash

Background

Aged 39 when he was elected, English became the second-youngest leader in the National Party's history, after Jim McLay (who was 38 when elected in 1984). He also became only the third Southlander to lead a major New Zealand political party, after Joseph Ward and Adam Hamilton.[1] However, English failed to improve the party's performance. In the 2002 elections, National suffered its worst electoral defeat ever, gaining barely more than twenty percent of the vote. English described it as "the worst day of my political life". Both party insiders and the general public were split as to how much to blame him for the loss, but most of the party believed that English would be able to rebuild National's support.[2]

By late 2003, however, National's performance in opinion polls remained poor. The party had briefly increased its popularity in the year following the election, but by October its support had fallen to levels only slightly better than what it achieved in the last ballot. English also appeared in a boxing match for a charity against entertainer Ted Clarke. This "stunt" did not boost his polling or that of the National party either, with suggestions that it devalued his image as a serious politician. Don Brash, former governor of the Reserve Bank and a relative newcomer to politics, began to build up support to replace English. On 28 October, Brash gained sufficient backing in Caucus to replace English as leader.[3]

Result

Brash defeated English in a caucus ballot lost by a two-vote margin. Afterwards a "key player" told media "He [English] was stabbed in the front not the back".[4]

Leadership ballot
NameVotesPercentage
Don Brash1453.84
Bill English1246.16

Notes
  1. Graeme Hunt, "Death in the afternoon – how the might fall", National Business Review, 12 October 2001. Retrieved from Factiva, 13 December 2016.
  2. Audrey Young, "Is this the future National deserved?", The New Zealand Herald, 30 July 2002. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
  3. "Don Brash is the new leader of the National Party". The New Zealand Herald. 28 October 2003. Retrieved 7 November 2009.
  4. "National leadership races of days gone by". Stuff.co.nz. 27 February 2018. Retrieved 27 February 2018.

References
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