New Zealand First’s only Indian-origin candidate has been placed at number 22 on the party list, well below the number of MPs the party would return on recent polling.

Former broadcaster Michael Laws, who once called an Indian-origin governor-general a “fat Indian”, is ranked sixth on the list announced Wednesday.

Recent polling shows why Soares’ ranking matters. NZ First has polled between 7.5 and 13 per cent over roughly the past two months, with recent polling-based seat calculations generally putting the party at about nine to 12 MPs.

Polls are snapshots of voter intention rather than predictions of an election result, but at those levels Soares would not enter Parliament through the party list.

She has another route to Parliament by winning the Upper Harbour electorate outright, which would be a historic first for the electorate. 

Soares’ ranking comes just days after she spoke about her ambitions to enter Parliament and said she had not been told where NZ First would place her on its list.

“I’ve got good experience. I work really hard,” she told Awaaz.

Soares, 58, moved to New Zealand from Mumbai in 1989 and has lived here for 37 years. She previously stood for New Conservative and Vision NZ before joining NZ First ahead of this year’s election.

She has strongly defended NZ First against accusations that its rhetoric towards Indians and immigration is anti-Indian. Soares said New Zealand had admitted too many Indian migrants and argued some newer migrants were failing to assimilate.

Asked what she would do about immigration if she entered Parliament, she suggested temporarily shutting the door while New Zealand reviewed its settings.

“I think the first thing, maybe, I’d close immigration off for a time being, until we get a hold of what’s actually happening,” she said, stressing that any closure should be temporary.

NZ First has had an Indian-origin MP before

Soares is not the first Indian-origin politician to seek a place in Parliament with NZ First. Mahesh Bindra served as an NZ First list MP from 2014 to 2017 and was the party’s spokesperson for ethnic affairs.

His experience also illustrates how much list ranking can matter. NZ First ranked Bindra 11th for the 2014 election and won exactly 11 seats, putting him into Parliament as the last candidate elected from its list.

Three years later, Bindra was promoted to number 10. But NZ First returned only nine MPs at the 2017 election, leaving him one place short and ending his time in Parliament.

Soares is ranked another 12 places below where Bindra sat in 2017.

Laws at number six

Michael Laws, meanwhile, has been placed sixth on the 2026 list, behind Winston Peters, Shane Jones, Casey Costello, Mark Patterson and Alfred Ngaro.

His ranking sits within the number of NZ First MPs produced by recent polling-based seat calculations.

Laws’ return to NZ First attracted attention earlier this year partly because of comments he made about Sir Anand Satyanand, New Zealand’s first governor-general of Indian ancestry.

During a programme in 2010, Laws called Satyanand a “fat Indian” and mocked his weight, saying he looked as though he had “discovered the buffet table at 20 and he’s never really left it”.

Laws defended the comments at the time as humour and denied they were racist.