General Election, 1996
Meanwhile, Right of Centre was not achieving the success in the polls that Meurant and Rogers had hoped. Meurant had strategised his party to capture a portion of the provincial conservative vote in New Zealand, but after more than a year, the party was still barely registering. It was decided to rebrand the party as the New Zealand Conservative Party. The group retained its socially conservative policies but also attempted to win support from the rural sector. This new campaign was based on the claim that National, once strongly associated with the agricultural sector, had abandoned farmers for "big business" and the cities. This new attempt to build a voter base did not meet with any noticeable success.
As the election loomed, internal disputes in Right of Centre occurred. In February 1996, Meurant rejected pressure from the executive of the party to abandon right-wing economic policies in favour of the more traditional and socialist provincial New Zealand policies. Meurant refused, claiming he alone had garnered substantial monetary donations from wealthy individuals, and on the promise of right wing economic policy forming the basis of the new party.
When the executive of the Party overruled Meurant and refused to return political donations garnered by Meurant on the promise of right wing economic policies, Meurant left the party and became an independent, following the path of most former independent MPs: to political oblivion. After the general election of 1996, the remnants of the party amalgamated with the United Party.
Read more about this topic: New Zealand Conservative Party
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