Another Act Party candidate joins the ranks of several others to have quit the race for opaque reasons
Scott Boness has become another in a string of Act candidates to drop out after quietly slipping off the Auckland Central ballot after just three weeks.
In his short stint running for the seat, Boness did little visible campaigning before being replaced by 2020 candidate Felix Poole on August 7.
Boness is not the first Act candidate to stand down for opaque reasons since the party list was published on July 16.
Darren Gilchrist has also joined those ranks, having recently stood down as the party’s Waikato candidate citing “personal reasons”.
Gilchrist apologised when comments he'd made linking a spate of drownings to the Covid vaccine resurfaced online.
The candidate for Kaipara ki Mahurangi, Anto Coates, quit in July for personal reasons and was replaced by Brent Bailey.
MP David Seymour told 1News he was happy the candidate had already stood down come August, when some of Coates’ controversial social media posts came to light.
Coates’ posts included parody videos referring to Dame Jacinda Ardern throwing people in a “gulag” and mandatory mask-wearing as “not quite North Korea but that’s how it starts”.
Most recently, Elaine Naidu Franz, running for Rangitata, took herself out of the race after her comments reappeared on a LinkedIn post comparing vaccine mandates to Nazi Germany.
Act media spokesperson Matt Ball said Boness’ resignation was the candidate's decision.
“Sometimes people put themselves forward and then they change their minds,” he said.
Ball said Act would not have replacement candidates for Gilchrist or Naidu Franz’s electorates, as its main focus was the party vote.
Asked why candidates seemed to be walking away from Act, Ball said the party was "still growing".
"They've added candidates, more candidates than have dropped off.
"The list we announced on the 16th was still a work in progress, and we were still adding people to it. I think eight have been added on, and four have dropped off."
Those who had left were finding they either no longer wanted to do it, didn't have the time or "whatever other personal reasons".
Would it have any effect on the election?
"Zero."
Boness would not give a reason for his withdrawal, saying he wanted to wait until “the other side” of the election.
He said: “Be as cynical, as theoretical as you want, but you never know what the potential outcome of a story might have on the way people view how they vote.”
Boness’ replacement, 25-year-old law clerk and former Young Act president Felix Poole, said this time around his campaign for Auckland Central was going well.
“Last time, my goal was always to get as many party votes for Act. So, if I can get more party votes for Act then I think that’s an improvement on last time.
“I think that more party votes for Act means a better chance at getting real change in this country,” he said.
Labour’s first-time candidate Oscar Sims said the change would not affect his campaign for Auckland Central.
“We're trying not to be that focused on what the other campaigns are doing, just run our own race," he said.
“We're not really spending too much time thinking about what the other parties are doing, in terms of attacking them or anything like that."
