with an electorate MP to offset its failure (as happened with all minor parties in the first general election under MMP (including the Christian Coalition) to reach the 5% threshold of votes to qualify as a political party with "List MPs" in parliament. This manoeuvre enabled Bolger to cobble together a coalition with ACT personalities whom he preferred to Meurant. Prior to the 1996 general election, however, and prior to Meurant resigning from National, Meurant came to an arrangement with Bolger whereby Right-of-Centre would not oppose the National Party government in votes of confidence and supply; in exchange, Meurant would keep his governmental post as Parliamentary Undersecretary for Agriculture. Until the emergence of other dissident National and Labour MPs (who formed the political party United with a base of seven MPs), Meurant actually held the balance of power and this allowed the National government to maintain its majority in the House. Meurant built a political party largely on the provincial farming network of Federated Farmers (former president Lumsden was a candidate) and Meat Board representatives (Tim Britton and John McCarthy were both candidates). On 8 June 1995, Meurant was joined by Trevor Rogers, another dissident National MP. Rogers was well known for his campaigns against pornography. He was a particular opponent of the internet, which he saw as facilitating the distribution of pornography and, in 1994, he had proposed a bill to completely outlaw the viewing of pornography on the internet. After a long period of argument with his fellow National MPs, Rogers decided that his future did not lie with the National Party and he transferred his allegiance to Right of Centre. This gave the party two MPs. In September 1995, Right of Centre clashed with the National Party when Ross Meurant was sacked as Parliamentary Undersecretary for Agriculture. This came as a result of Meurant's accepting a directorship of Prok Bank, a Russian-owned bank registered in Vanuatu. Prime Minister Bolger believed that this directorship was inappropriate for someone holding an executive post in government, and requested that Meurant resign the directorship. Meurant refused, and was sacked as Parliamentary Undersecretary. Despite the tension this generated, Right of Centre continued to support the National government. General Election, 1996 Meanwhile, Right of Centre was not achieving the success in the polls that Meurant and Rogers had hoped. Meurant had strategised his party to capture a portion of the provincial conservative vote