ACT Party leader David Seymour has confirmed another party candidate - who joked former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern thought about throwing people in gulags and suggested mask use led to dictatorship - stood down a month ago.
Upon hearing an example of the former candidate's social media posts, he said he was "pretty happy about that now".
He said, however, the candidate stood down for "personal reasons".
Seymour was confronted about former ACT Party candidate Anto Coates' social media posts today, which included a parody song that referred to former Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern thinking about throwing people in a gulag - a Soviet forced labour camp where about 1.6 million people died.
It was to the tune of When You Say Nothing At All, a song popularised by Ronan Keating.
Seymour said Coates - who was number 33 on the party's list - had "decided he didn't want to stand anymore" and stepped down for personal reasons "about a month ago".
"He had his own reasons, it's not for me to discuss."
Seymour said he had not looked at the videos of parody songs Coates had posted on social media.
"He hasn't been a candidate for about a month and I'm pretty happy about that now."
Coates had also posted a song to the tune of Your Song by Elton John, with the lyrics:
"You can tell everybody to wear a mask. It's not quite North Korea but that's how it starts... the world's going bankrupt but never you fear, at least 93-year-olds will live one more year."
'Unacceptable'' posts
It comes as 1News revealed ACT's Rangitata candidate Elaine Naidu Franz quit today over a social media posts where she likened vaccine mandates to Nazi concentration camps.
The posts were brought to Seymour's attention when 1News approached him for comment about them. Seymour said the comments were "unacceptable".
Another candidate - Darren Gilchrist - the ACT candidate for Waikato - apologised for comments speculating drowning victims died due to the Covid-19 vaccine.
On the Telegram app, Gilchrist posted: "Well over 40 drownings this summer so far. Given the jab side effects of myocarditis/heart attacks, and blood clotting, I'm thinking there is a likely link to jabs."
Gilchrist earlier told 1News he did not hold that view and was "just asking questions". He remained an ACT candidate.
This afternoon, Seymour said some candidates had "slipped through the net".
Naidu Franz had not shown "any inkling of being someone that would make a comment like that," he said.
"So we were a bit surprised, we're just glad they've stepped down," he said, referring to Naidu Franz.
Asked if the revelations told him anything about who the party was attracting, he said he didn't think so.
Asked if there was anyone else that might need to resign before the election, Seymour said: "You never say never".
"We strongly regret that one person in particular slipped through that net, they're no longer a candidate and obviously we keep our eyes open, I'm sure [the media] will do your best to help us find some more."
"We dealt with it in literally 15 minutes, they are no longer a candidate for us."
Selection process
Asked about ACT's candidate woes, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said all political parties needed to make sure they had a good candidate selection process.
"There's no such thing as an absolutely fool-proof candidate selection process, but where there are basic alarm bells and basic warning signs, a party should pick that up.
"The fact that ACT have been selecting these people really is a bit of a warning sign of what you could get under a National-ACT-New Zealand First government.
"Some parties are courting conspiracy theorists more than others and ACT certainly seem to be."
Greens co-leader Marama Davidson said she believed ACT having a now former candidate with those views was "a little bit typical, I think, of where the ACT Party actually wants to land a lot".
"Looking into the fringes. So I'm not too surprised."
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa Packer said she was not surprised by the situation because of "the extremism" of the ACT Party.
"We're not surprised that that's only been revealed by others and not from themselves. They're a party that hide a lot and don't disclose all that's going on within them."
Labour MP Willie Jackson said the ACT Party had "some extreme views".
"They've moved her on, so good on them."
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