Dr Gareth Morgan, the founder, funder and former leader of The Opportunities Party has washed his hands of all ties with the political group.
After spending over $2 million in leading the party to 2.4 percent of the party vote in the 2017 general election, Dr Morgan had initially decided to resign as leader but stay on as a policy advisor leading up to the next election.
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However on Sunday morning his former party released a statement saying Dr Morgan had bid farewell to politics, for now.
"Party leader Geoff Simmons has accepted the resignation of Dr Morgan from all roles, including the policy committee.
"We want to thank Dr Morgan for his foresight in creating the party and will honour his legacy by discarding irrelevant, outdated notions of political ideology and focussing on 'Not left, not right - just doing what works'."
Simmons told Newshub he is now focussed on producing a campaign strategy for the party as well as filling the funding gap left behind by Dr Morgan's absence.
"Our focus is on being a membership-led, membership-funded organisation, similar to how Bernie Sanders runs his campaigns and how Obama did it in the States.
"We will be coming up with some fresh ideas because there's a lot happening in our economy right now, there's big disruption coming and that actually throws up big opportunities for us."
Dr Morgan's time with TOP was highlighted by a string of controversial moments.
Most famously, he challenged now-Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to prove she was "more than lipstick on a pig" when appointed as Labour Party leader.
He also implied Ardern's cat was a pest after it was run over, the comment coming after he spent years campaigning for cats to be eradicated from New Zealand.
Another odd moment came when he told one of his own election candidates, Jenny Condie, she was "a pain in the arse".
Newshub.
