Te Ururoa Flavell has been elected co-leader of the Maori Party, replacing long time leader Pita Sharples.
No-one voted against Flavell in a vote at the Maori Party's annual conference in Whakatane today.
An MP for Waiariki since 2005, Flavell was the only person nominiated in the vote, which took place at the annual conference in Whakatane today.
An emotional Flavell fought back tears as he thanked about 300 party members for electing him.
"I want you to know that i am up for this...I will give it my all."
Flavell had been engaged in a long running powers struggle with Sharples, who announced earlier this month that he would stand down as party co-leader at this weekend's conference.
Naida Glavish has also been elected president of the party, replacing Pem Bird, who announced recently that he would not stand for re-election.
An advisor to the Auckland and Waitemata district health boards and the New Zealand Police, she is a former commissioner of the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission. She is chair of Te Runanga o Ngati Whatua.
Glavish earned fame as the "kia ora lady" when in 1984 working as a phone operator at New Zealand Post she was demoted for answering the phone with the now widely used phrase. After controvercy she was returned to the role and allowed to continue to answer the phone with kia ora.
Glavish beat George Ngatai to the role. An Auckalnd business consltant with links to the Destiny Church, Ngatai had claimed that he represented the future of the party.
The Maori Party can now put its internal bickering to bed, and focus on rebuilding in the run-up to next year's General Election. It won't be an easy task, but it is something that the party must do if it is going to survive as an effective voice for Maori.
And outgoing president Pem Bird has given the party a message; read on:
Outgoing president Bird called on the party not to quit its agreement with National ahead of next year's election, saying breaking the deal could damage its mana.
Bird opened his address by saying there was a "morbid fascination" with the party's struggles, with repeated predictions that the party was dead, including from other political parties.
However, this was far from the case.
"We're alive, well and kicking, and we're on our way back," Bird said.
The party's troubles have been back in the headlines after they were beaten - coming third - in the recent Ikaroa-Rawhiti by-election, which was won by Labour, with the Mana Party coming a clear second.
Bird said he accepted "without qualification" responsibility that the party had not made the impact it wanted in the contest.
Both Mr Bird and outgoing co-leader Dr Pita Sharples have taken the blame for the Maori Party's supposedly poor showing in Ikaroa Rawhiti. In reality, it may not have actually been that bad a showing. Labour threw an enormous amount of resources at Ikaroa Rawhiti trying to preserve Parekura Horomia's 6500-plus majority. On election day, that majority was down to just over 1600, although the Mana Party had leap-frogged the Maori Party into second place. But Na Rahania's vote was not that much less than the party vote that the Maori Party received in Ikaroa-Rawhiti in 2011, in an electorate that was a Labour stronghold thanks to the late Mr Horomia.
A Te Ururua Flavell-led Maori Party is unlikely to go into coalition with Hone Harawira's Mana Party any day soon and that is welcome news. Although it has come at a cost, the Maori Party's decision to support John Key on confidence and supply has been the right one. The weeping sore of the Foreshore and Seabed, the whole reason for the party's existence was fixed, Tariana Turia's visionary Whanau Ora policy was implemented (and we will see the benefits of that in decades to come), and far more progress has been made under National in resolving treaty claims.
Mr Flavell's challenge now is to sell that to Maoridom.
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