Labour's Waiariki candidate Tamati Coffey with Rotorua candidate Clare Mahon. Photo / Andrew Warner
Labour's Waiariki candidate Tamati Coffey with Rotorua candidate Clare Mahon. Photo / Andrew Warner
The preliminary results are in and for the most part, National has kept its seats across the Bay of Plenty - but some candidates may not have anticipated just how close their races would be.
In Rotorua, incumbent National MP Todd McClay held on to his seat with only a 1245-vote margin between him and Labour's Claire Mahon, who secured 13,038 votes.
Although McClay won a fifth term as Rotorua MP with 14,283 of the votes, the electorate voted strongly for his party's competition and Labour secured 45.8 per cent of party votes over National's 29.6 per cent.
National MP Todd McClay will be representing Rotorua for a fifth term. Photo / Andrew Warner.
The hotly contested Waiariki seat is being held by Māori Party newcomer Rawiri Waititi, for now - giving the party that was ousted in the previous election the opportunity to reclaim a seat at the decision-making table.
Calls were made for a recount as the votes rolled in, at one stage with nothing between them.
But with 100 per cent of the preliminary results counted, Waititi holds 9473 votes and incumbent Labour MP Tamati Coffey sits closely behind with 9058.
Waiariki Labour candidate Tamati Coffey. Photo / Andrew Warner
Coffey has said he will not concede until the special votes are counted, which last election gave him roughly 400 votes to secure the win from former Māori Party leader Te Ururoa Flavell.
Sitting at number 37 on the Labour list, Coffey will remain in Parliament. The Labour Party held most of the party votes in the electorate: 61.1 per cent. The Māori Party trailed with 17.2 per cent.
Māori Party candidate for Waiariki Rawiri Waititi has secured the party a return to parliament. Photo / File
The East Coast electorate has been a National Party stronghold and Tania Tapsell, a Rotorua district councillor, was tipped to take it after the resignation of MP Anne Tolley.
But Tapsell was one of the many victims of the massive swing to Labour after the left romped home to take the election.
Tapsell lost by 4646 votes. With 100 per cent of the votes counted, she had 13,721 votes compared with 18,367 votes for the Labour Party's East Coast candidate Kiri Allan.
Party votes in the electorate followed the overall national results: 49.3 per cent of votes for the Labour Party compared with National's 28.2 per cent.
Tania Tapsell at her election party in Whakatāne. Photo / Zizi Sparks
Allan will be one of the youngest representatives in the Labour Party, although sitting at 25 on the list, she would have held a seat in parliament regardless.
National's Louise Upston has secured a fourth term as Taupō MP - but with a much smaller margin than in 2017.
She won the seat by 14,335 votes in the last election, a 62.9 per cent majority of the 39,140 votes cast, but this year she won by just 5254 in on the preliminary results - with 18,646 of the 37,772 votes cast.
Louise Upston National party candidate for Taupō. Photo / File
Coming in second, Labour's Ala' Al-Bustanji's support swelled to 35.45 per cent, with 13,392 votes. But at number 71 on Labour's list, he won't be making it into Parliament.
National lost the party vote in the Taupō electorate in 2020, with just 33.8 per cent, after getting 53.9 per cent in 2017.
Former National Party leader Todd Muller celebrated his win at the Omanu Golf Club. Photo / George Novak
National MP Todd Muller retained his Bay of Plenty electorate on Saturday night with 16,929 votes, but Labour MP Angie Warren-Clark was not far behind with a margin of more than 3000, sitting on 13,457 votes.
Muller will enter his third term as MP and Warren-Clark enters her second as a list MP.
However, the Labour Party received 41.3 per cent of votes in the Bay of Plenty while National received 33.9 per cent.
In the last election, Muller received 61 per cent of votes, followed by Warren-Clark on 27 per cent.
Angie Warren-Clarke at the Mount Golf Club celebrating the close race with partner Blair Warren. Photo / George Novak
In the past Labour has only nibbled at the wide margin Tauranga MP Simon Bridges has enjoyed for four terms, but on Saturday it took a big bite.
With 100 per cent of the vote counted, Bridges has narrowly claimed a fifth term in what was considered a safe blue seat.
His 2017 margin of just over 11,000 votes over Labour's Jan Tinetti has, however, shrunk to 2433. with Bridges securing 16,602 votes on Tinetti's 14,169.
National Party Tauranga MP Simon Bridges held onto his seat. Photo / George Novak
The electorate's party vote, too, was caught up in the Labour landslide.
National has won more than half the party vote in Tauranga for the past three elections but that majority has swung to Labour, with 41 per cent to National's 33.8 per cent.
The Labour Party's Jan Tinetti was hot on the heals of Tauranga MP Simon Bridges. Photo / George Novak
National's Scott Simpson has kept the Coromandel seat blue, but Labour's calling it "purple".
The electorate includes Thames, Whitianga and Whangamatā, but extends through Waihī Beach, Katikati and Matakana Island, to Whakamārama just north of Tauranga.
National's Scott Simpson has held the seat since 2011 and this year's preliminary results give him the seat with 19,241 votes of 41,180 cast.
Scott Simpson is the National party candidate for Coromandel. PHOTO/Supplied.
But his winning margin dropped steeply from 14,326 in 2017 to 4206 in 2020.
The National Party received more than 50 per cent of the party votes in Coromandel in 2017 but this year Labour won the most with 42.7 per cent, while National took 33.7 per cent.
Labour's Nathaniel Blomfield, who received 15,035 votes, said reducing Simpson's margin by 10,000 votes, from 2017, put the seat "in striking distance" and it was now "more purple than blue".
However, at 76 on the Labour list, Blomfield won't be brought in as a list MP.
Special declaration votes are still to be counted and were estimated at 17 per cent of the total national votes. This includes an estimated 66,000 overseas and dictation votes.
Preliminary results for the end of life choice and cannabis referendums will be available on October 30.
All advance and election day votes will be recounted. Special declaration votes will be processed and counted. All referendum votes will also be counted.
The target to release the official results of the 2020 General Election and referendums is 2pm on November 6.
