Stephnie de Ruyter is a former leader of the New Zealand Democratic Party, a small centre-left New Zealand

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

based upon Social Credit economics. The Democrats, who, in June 2018, returned to campaigning under the name Social Credit are currently outside

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

. While the Democratic Party was a member of the

Alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or sovereign state, states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an a ...

, de Ruyter served as an Alliance candidate. In the 1999 election, she was the Alliance's candidate for the Invercargill electorate, and was ranked twenty-second on the party's list. She was not elected. Later, when the Democrats joined

Jim Anderton James Patrick Anderton (born Byrne; 21 January 1938 – 7 January 2018) was a New Zealand politician who led a succession of Left-wing politics, left-wing parties after leaving the New Zealand Labour Party, Labour Party in 1989. Anderton's pol ...

to establish the breakaway Progressive Coalition, de Ruyter took an active role in building the new party. By the time of the 2002 election, de Ruyter was deputy leader of the Democrats and was ranked fifth on the Progressive list. She also stood as the Progressive Coalition's candidate in

Invercargill Invercargill ( , ) is the southernmost and westernmost list of cities in New Zealand, city in New Zealand, and one of the Southernmost settlements, southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland Region, Southlan ...

. Once again, she was not elected. Not long after the 2002 election, the Democrats opted to leave the Progressive Coalition and reestablish themselves as an independent party. The leader of the Democrats,

Grant Gillon Grant Gillon is a former New Zealand politician. He was a member of parliament between 1996 and 2002, representing the Alliance Party, has held a number of seats in local government. He previously served on the Devonport-Takapuna Local Boar ...

, along with the former leader John Wright, unsuccessfully urged the party to remain a member of the Progressive Coalition. De Ruyter was elected leader on Gillon standing down and John Wright also leaving. De Ruyter has also been involved in local-body politics in Invercargill, standing for election to the Southland health board.

References

Living people Leaders of political parties in New Zealand People from Invercargill New Zealand Democratic Party for Social Credit politicians Alliance (New Zealand political party) politicians Jim Anderton's Progressive Party politicians Unsuccessful candidates in the 1999 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 2002 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 2005 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 2008 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 2011 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 2014 New Zealand general election 21st-century New Zealand women politicians Year of birth missing (living people) {{NewZealand-politician-stub