Gareth Morgan says it's "good to see those that are not aligned with our values principles or policies moving aside to allow the rest of us to move forward."

Former Opportunities Party (TOP) candidates say the party's board did not allow any internal criticism of the party.

TOP leader Gareth Morgan publicly announced he would step down from leading the party last week, pending a new leader being selected.

Three further resignations were swiftly announced.

It's understood a meeting had already taken place to select a new leader on Wednesday, with a handpicked group of candidates who had not criticised the party invited to contest the leadership - and told to keep the meeting secret from those who had.

READ MORE: TOP loses leader Gareth Morgan and three other candidates in matter of hours

These party faithful are understood have been offered two options: one where Morgan properly left the party and lowered his financial contributions, and another where he stepped back from the leadership but remained on the board. The latter option was selected.

CHRIS SKELTON/STUFF Geoff Simmons resigned from the party after apparently winning an internal ballot over who might be the new leader.

Co-deputy leader Geoff Simmons was overwhelmingly voted in as a new leader, but subsequently resigned over a conflict with a board member, a candidate who was at the meeting said.

Simmons describes that as a "massive over-simplification" but did not dispute that he was the pick of the meeting, or the conflict with the board.

"A lot depends on what's going on, what's going to happen over the next few months and how things pan out with the party. I'll be looking at whether I can make a difference by returning to it," Simmons said.

SUPPLIED Former TOP candidates Jenny Condie, Jessica Hammond Doube, and Geoff Simmons. All have now resigned.

"I think everyone recognises the need for the party to evolve in a democratic direction. The question is going to be the speed of travel."

Simmons said the meeting was less formal than others described and was something closer to a "focus group".

"It was an exploratory discussion. You'd have to ask Gareth about why certain people were there and certain people weren't."

NO INTERNAL CRITICISM

Candidates Jenny Condie and Jessica Hammond Doube, who have both resigned, said the party's board did not allow any internal criticism of the party or its messaging.

This was particularly apparent when Morgan made the controversial comment that Jacinda Ardern was simply "lipstick on the pig" of the Labour Party.

"On the day of Gareth's 'lipstick on a pig' comments Jessica [Hammond Doube] and I tried to raise concerns in a meeting with [the board] over - not the comments themselves - but the way the organisation was responding and in particular the fact that we would be running a billboard with the comments on it. At that meeting they invited us both to resign," Condie said.

"A few days later we were given our list placing, and we were are number 23 and 24. But on the website there were just 20 candidates. Being put on 23 and 24 on a 20-person list was interesting."

Neither of the candidates were invited to the Wednesday meeting, despite Hammond Doube significantly outperforming her party in her electorate.

The three-person board - made up of Morgan and longtime staffers Donna Clifford and Andrew Gawith - is given sweeping powers by the party's constitution to compile the party list and select electoral candidates.

Condie said calls with the board were "odd".

"[The board] had a really similar style in that they would ask questions, walking you to the idea that you had done something wrong.

"Any attempt to provide feedback they just didn't want to hear."

Despite this, she argued the problem was less with the members of the board itself and more with the party structure, which gave them complete power.

"For me the substantial problem is at the heart of the constitution. These three people are handpicked by Gareth as long-time confidants of his. I don't think that structure is viable for a political party going forward."

"Any political party has to be able to allow for lots of different kinds of of personality to coexist. That was the fundamental problem here, that certain viewpoints were never welcome."

Simmons said a campaign was called a "campaign" for a reason but he understood where the criticisms were coming from.

"It's very much like a military-style operation where you don't really have a lot of time for discussion and debate."

Hammond Doube said communication strategy was the main issue with the party.

"A lot of the principles and the policies were great. But you have to connect with people's hearts as well as their heads."

Simmons agreed that messaging was a large issue.

"I think it's pretty safe to say that while as a party we all agree on the policies and ideas that we're trying to push there is some debate over communications styles and the best way to get our messages across," Simmons said.

Simmons and Hammond Doube starred in many popular Facebook videos promoting the party's policies during the campaign.

"Geoff's resignation signals my last hope that the party would move in a direction that I was more comfortable with," Hammond Doube said as she resigned.

Eventually this internal division spilled out into the media, after Gareth Morgan questioned whether the Prime Minister's dead cat had been "out and about wandering".

"It is not merely Gareth's comments themselves – these are a reflection of the culture that exists within the party. There is a mismatch between our policies and our culture: between what we say we want to accomplish and how we actually behave. This mismatch makes us untrustworthy in the eyes of the public," Condie wrote in an internal email obtained by The Spinoff.

The response from Morgan made it to Twitter: "Hi Jenny - please just resign from the party - you're a pain in the arse".

TOP board members were given two opportunities to comment on the allegations. On Friday, Morgan issued a one-line response.

"It's good to see those that are not aligned with our values principles or policies moving aside to allow the rest of us to move forward," Morgan said.