At the Wanganui Chamber of Commerce’s candidates forum on Wednesday in a surprise move one of the candidates Debbie Lucas of the Progressive Party said ‘Don’t vote for me’.

She did explain, however that she wanted constituents to use their party vote strategically to support Jim Anderton and preserve the regional development policies started four years ago in New Zealand.

Chamber spokesperson Jeff Smith said ‘ It was a surprise to hear this initially however Debbie explained that this was a strategy to gain support for Progressive list MPs ands she was happy to sell the ‘Party Line’ in lieu of a vote'