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A vital question hanging over the Mt Albert by-election will be answered on Tuesday when the government reveals its decision on the Waterview connection, a road or a tunnel.
Both options cut through the electorate, one on the surface and the other underneath it, to link Auckland's motorway systems.
Labour and the Greens, working on a comment on Monday by National's candidate Melissa Lee, have assumed the government has chosen the unpopular motorway option.
Lee, who was taking part in a radio discussion, said "it's above ground for me".
But Prime Minister John Key cast doubt on that, telling reporters not to jump to conclusions.
"That may be her preferred option, that's not necessarily what the cabinet has recommended," he said.
But Key's hints were confusing, because he emphasised the importance of the route that will be revealed in a separate announcement on Wednesday.
The government may have chosen a third option, a road, but not on the same route as was originally intended because it threatened too many houses.
Key said the June 13 by-election had no bearing on the government's decision.
Labour transport spokesman Darren Hughes said Lee's preferred option meant about 500 houses would have to be demolished as well as the loss of schools, parks and businesses.
Labour candidate David Shearer said his position was clear - a tunnel should be built as soon as possible.
Green Party candidate Russel Norman also quoted Lee in a media statement headed 'National's barbarian bulldozers at the gate of Mt Albert'.
ACT candidate John Boscawen also assumed the government had ditched the tunnel option and it pleased him.
"ACT has always favoured a surface route and has been upfront about it," he said.
"A $2.77 billion tunnel is a luxury we can't afford."
Boscawen said he was going to propose an alternative road route that would mean the removal of fewer than 50 houses.
That was less than the number that would have to be demolished for a tunnel, he said.
The previous Labour government planned to put a tunnel under Mt Eden but the present government reviewed that decision.
