Botany byelection candidates [UPDATE: NO GREENS!]

UPDATE | 4:30pm: Official release: 10 candidates will stand. Where the fuck is Linka whatever his name is? The Greens are not running in Botany! This is pathetic. What is going on here!? There's pirates, there's the Beijing-controlled "New Citizen Party", there's even some idiot wanting to join Australia... where are the Greens? Don't the Botany voters deserve a Green candidate? Useless. Why have they pulled out? --ENDS

UPDATE | 5pm: OK, he was two minutes late after a nomination botch. His party will be furious with him for this crucial mistake. This from NZPA via Slater:

The Greens announced in a press release late last night that it had selected former staffer Richard Leckinger to stand.
Chief Electoral Officer Robert Peden confirmed that the Green candidate had not made it.
"A completed nomination form from the Green Party was not received before the legal deadline of noon today and therefore the Electoral Commission could not accept the nomination," he said.
Mr Leckinger was upset.
"Gutted. In one word gutted. My heart is broken for the Green Party folk in Botany who had pulled all this together. I am gutted, it's a real disappointment that I got stuck in traffic on Ti Rakau Drive."
He told NZPA he showed up at the registrar's office at 10am but the official discovered one of his nominees had, by moving a couple of blocks, moved to the Hunua electorate rather than Botany. Mr Leckinger dashed back to Botany to get another signature but did not make it back on time.
"I was two minutes too late."
He hit every red light. "I kept saying to the lights 'please don't let this end this way'."
Mr Leckinger doubted there was much campaigning he could do now as public meetings were intended for candidates.
"And I understand that, you don't necessarily want people who aren't on the ballot. I am not sure what the next step is at the moment, at the moment its about consoling the people who put the hard work in and regrouping for November (the General election)."
--ENDS

Nomination deadline at midday, an official announcement of the candidates is due at 4pm. National's young thruster looks like he won't be facing any competition. Ross's mate, Slater, is in raptures over Rudman's roasting of Labour's efforts. Having conceded defeat and admitted to carpet-bagging is a rather poor way to start a democratic contest. Being invisible won't help much either. Who?

The Greens should be seriously contesting this for the left - now that Labour has capitulated they could have a good showing. Rick has a CV that any party would like - incl. National - by the looks of it. What was an American doing contesting Tamaki, a Maori [general] electorate? Not the most obvious fit. [My mistake - he got almost 6% in the affluent Eastern suburbs electorate - general electorate - of Tamaki, which is not too bad for the blue rinse neighbourhoods.] He'll have more luck in Botany and the party should be aiming to do better than Labour.

Not sure if NZ First is bothering to run anyone, but I seriously doubt their party is strong enough on the ground organisationally to do anything. Their Auckland presence was very weak in the 2008 general election and they would be in even worse shape now without the money that having MPs delivers. Even if they could find a candidate they wouldn't risk running in case they got significantly below 5%.