Editorial: Election engages Bay voters

Prime Minister John Key celebrating victory at Viaduct Events Centre. Photo / Doug Sherring

What a fascinating election.

At a national level, the significant results were the annihilation of the unholy alliance of Kim Dotcom and Hone Harawira , the spectacular failure of Labour and the National Party's remarkable achievement of increasing its majority to win a third term.

Locally there was plenty of excitement with Stuart Nash running a textbook campaign to win Napier. National did itself no favours with the late selection of their candidate and by not striking a deal with the Conservatives to prevent the vote-splitting that resulted.

Already there is talk that Mr Nash could be in the running to become Labour leader if David Cunliffe is toppled, but hopefully his first focus will be serving Napier.

In Tukituki, we saw an, at times, rather negative campaign with Labour candidate Anna Lorck determined to beat incumbent National MP Craig Foss who went in with a 9000 majority. Such was Ms Lorck's energy and ferocity that even Mr Foss seemed to believe his seat was under threat, causing him to undertake the unusual activity of door-knocking in Flaxmere.

It was always going to be a miracle for her to do it, but at least Ms Lorck ensured that some important issues got some airtime.

Wairarapa surely wins by getting two MPs in National's Alastair Scott and New Zealand First's Ron Mark, but Labour's young gun Kieran McAnulty is already aiming for 2017.

The unsung star of the local elections must surely be Labour's Meka Whaitiri who could have a very bright future in Parliament.

The most significant thing about this election was how engaged people in Hawke's Bay were and when it came time to vote, the people spoke.