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The Labour Party has received nine nominations for the Mt Albert by-election on June 13 to fill the seat left vacant by former prime minister Helen Clark.
Party president Andrew Little says it will be a hard-fought contest and it is critical that Labour has a strong candidate selected through a fair and robust process.
Nominations closed at 5pm Wednesday and the party will choose its candidate on May 3.
"They all have solid credentials to be an effective representative for Mt Albert and definite leadership potential," Little says.
"The selected candidate will fight a well organised, determined campaign to hold Mt Albert, based on local issues."
A late entry who is likely to become a favourite is David Shearer, who works for the United Nations in Iraq.
He is a former adviser to Labour leader Phil Goff and has previously stood for Labour in general elections.
Shearer will have to return to New Zealand to appear before the selection panel.
Another front runner is lawyer Helen White.
The nine nominees announced by Little are: Meg Bates, Glenda Fryer, Simon Mitchell, Stuart Prossor, David Shearer, Farida Sultana, Chris Tremewan, Rhema Vaithianathan and Helen White.
Until this week the favourite had been list MP Phil Twyford, but he announced on Monday he was not going to put his name forward.
If he had, and if he had won the by-election, a list slot would have been opened for former MP Judith Tizard to return to parliament.
Labour is believed to prefer bringing a new MP to parliament to having an old one come back.
National's new list MP, Melissa Lee, is the front runner for her party.
Clark held the seat with a 10,350 majority in the last election but Labour's lead over National in the party vote was only 2426.
