Election to be a photo finish - Clark

FAIRFAX MEDIA: Polling shows the looming election is now too close to call, Prime Minister Helen Clark said today.

"It is going to be a photo-finish and the campaign is either going to bring out the best in people or the worst in people," she told reporters in Auckland, where she was unveiling a new party billboard in Upper Queen Street.

She said she was aware of four recent polls - including one commissioned by Labour - that showed Labour plus the Green Party either level pegging or a point ahead or a point behind the National Party-Act.

"That tells how close this race is between the centre-left and the right."

She said she was well prepared for tonight's political leaders debate.

"I think the National Party believed they could sleep walk to victory. That is never the case."

Ms Clark said the international financial crisis had changed the whole dynamic of the election campaign and voters were now looking for people with good track records in managing it.

The Labour leader also unveiled one of the party's new election billboards, which encourages people to vote to keep Kiwibank, KiwiSaver and KiwiRail in their current form.

National has promised to scale back KiwiSaver's employer contributions from 4 percent to 2 percent, it opposed the sale of KiwiRail, although it has said it will retain it in government and deputy leader Bill English was secretly recorded earlier in the year saying it would "eventually" sell Kiwibank.

Mr English later retracted the statement.

But Miss Clark said a vote for Labour would ensure the government would "Keep it Kiwi" - the slogan of the billboard.

"These three Labour policies are not only important for New Zealand's economic wellbeing, but also have been proven to be very popular and successful.

"Yet all three have been attacked and opposed by the short-sighted National Party, which could not be trusted to keep these hugely beneficial policies and assets.