OPINION: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is expected to announce a delay to the election. It's totally appropriate - and I believe she has no other option.
Party leaders have been screaming at the referee saying 'unfair', unfair because they can't campaign.
They can't campaign, and when and if level 3 ends that may not, in the infamous words of the late Robert Muldoon, 'leave much time for the opposition to run into the election'.
So they want a level playing field.
In fact, most of the leaders don't just want a delay, they are demanding it - and they have every right to do so.
Ardern won't want to leave the election too late - she needs to cash in on her popularity now and not some time next year.
The longer she leaves it the more time there is for the economy to collapse, for people to be laid off, for COVID-19 to sneak in again. Locking us down and restrictions in our daily lives isn't making Ardern more popular, and she's smart enough to know that.
She needs to find a compromise - one that appeases old mate Winston Peters who is looking like picking up an Oscar nomination for best actor - pretending to be in opposition.
He's piling on the pressure. He says delay.
Most MPs probably fancy the delay - it's a stay of execution. It means they get paid for longer - before some face unemployment queues themselves.
Fifty-seven countries have delayed their elections this year - it would cause a huge stink if Ardern didn't.
And if she goes with a short delay I think she'll have a fight on her hands not from just National leader Judith Collins - but it'll push Peters towards Collins.
Ardern is simply too collaborative to invite a fight on this. The solution is simple.
Duncan Garner is the host of The AM Show.
