By Rebecca Wright
The Te Tai Tokerau by-election campaign is down to its final days, and it's heating up to be quite a race.
Tonight the candidates took part in a debate deep in Hone Harawira country, where Labour's candidate Kelvin Davis put up quite a fight.
And some say it’s a brave man who keeps Mr Harawira waiting, but that’s exactly what Maori Party candidate Solomon Tipene did - he was last to arrive tonight a full 15 minutes after everyone else.
With only three days to go in this by-election campaign the candidates were keen to stay on message, and Mr Harawira is clearly looking for hearts and minds to get him over the line.
“Never mind about all of these flash terms about health and education and anything else," says Mr Harawira. "Us – it's about us. We turn ourselves around, we are unstoppable".
But Labour’s Mr Davis wasn’t buying it, firing up at what he called Mr Harawira's "airy-fairy" ideas.
"We’ve got to wake up – we can’t just carry on about getting together and holding hands, we’ve got to have solutions."
Mr Davis even called out a Mana Party heckler.
"If you want to be the MP, you stand here and you tell everyone, but this is not a debate. This is about us getting up and putting our ideas across."
It was also an opportunity for Mr Tipene to tell voters he wasn’t giving in after party co-leader Tariana Turia yesterday told 3 News that he didn’t understand politics.
"Now hear it from me tonight – I am still in the race 'til Saturday with the full support of the party behind me."
Although Mr Tipene wasn’t quite as forthcoming with the media, things took a turn for the surreal when he refused to answer questions from reporters.
Mr Tipene has struggled in this by-election campaign. He has been found out and it is now a two-horse race.
Either Mr Harawira or Mr Davis can take it, with only one percentage point and three days left in it.
3 News