Peters urges Hutt South voters to back National's Chris Bishop

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has told supporters in the Hutt South electorate to vote for National candidate Chris Bishop, rather than his own party's candidate in the seat.

Peters made the endorsement at a public meeting in Lower Hutt, RNZ reported. He told the meeting that the electorate vote decides who represents the Hutt, and the party vote decides the balance of power in Parliament. The Post described his message as "unique".

Peters described Bishop as a "cut above" the usual National MP. He said Bishop's work on reform of the Resource Management Act showed he was a capable cabinet member and a "serious contributor" to cabinet. Peters also told his voters that a party vote for National would be a waste.

The endorsement comes as current polling puts Bishop at risk of not returning to Parliament if he does not win an electorate seat. National has rejected what is known as the overhang candidate-only strategy, in which voters back a local candidate but not the party, and has called for "two ticks blue", meaning a vote for the candidate and for the party. ACT and NZ First have both endorsed the one-tick approach.

NZ First's candidate for Hutt South is Alistair Boyce, who is ranked 35 on the party's list. The list is the ranked set of candidates who enter Parliament from the party vote. Boyce acknowledged it was not realistic for him to enter Parliament from list position 35.

This is the second time Peters, as leader, has endorsed another party's candidate. In 2014 he endorsed Labour's Kelvin Davis. Peters said he had no plans to make any other candidate endorsements this campaign.

Bishop said he would be working hard for votes every day until November 7.