Labour’s Cushla Tangaere-Manuel (left) and Te Pāti Māori’s Meka Whaitiri. Photo / Duncan Brown
Labour’s Cushla Tangaere-Manuel (left) and Te Pāti Māori’s Meka Whaitiri. Photo / Duncan Brown
Meka Whaitiri will likely be out of Parliament after a notable defeat in Labour’s favour in the Ikaroa-Rāwhiti seat.
On Sunday morning, with just the specials to count Labour’s Cushla Tangaere-Manuel was beating Te Pati Māori’s Whaitiri by a margin of 2860.
The Labour Party, which has held a vice-like grip on the seat throughout most of its history, won the party vote with 55.49 per cent to Te Pāti Māori’s 24 per cent.
Te Pāti Māori looks set to turn several previously safe Labour-held Māori electorates its way but Ikaroa-Rawhiti is the only one of the seven electorates which had a Labour candidate leading.
Tangaere-Manuel told One News that she was “humbled” to see the results swing in her favour.
The big question of the night was whether incumbent Whaitiri would retain the seat she held for Labour since 2013 before defecting to Te Pati Māori earlier this year.
Tangaere-Manuel is not on the Labour Party list and is purely campaigning to win the electorate.
Ikaroa-Rawhiti Te Pati Maori candidate Meka Whaitiri at her election night gathering at Waipatu marae in Hastings. Photo / Paul Taylor
At Hawke’s Bay Today’scandidate evening, Whaitiri asked voters to recognise her past work in the electorate, which spans from as far as Te Araroa to Wellington and encompasses most of Hawke’s Bay.
“I love the work that I’ve done. I’ve done this work for 10 years, loyally for the people of Ikaroa-Rāwhiti and also for Labour,” she said.
“But as you know, in Waipatu not far from here, I decided to come back to my whakapapa. I served Labour really loyally for 10 years - now I am on a new journey which is unapologetically Māori.”
Speaking to John Tamihere on Radio Waatea 603 in May, Whaitiri said the change in leadership of the Labour Party made her rethink her own political agenda.
Whaitiri previously edged out Te Pati Māori’s Heather Skipworth - who she inherited the candidacy from - at the 2020 general election.
In 2020 she won with 13,642 votes, which was 55.6 per cent of the vote.
The only other candidate in the electorate besides Tangaere-Manuel and Whaitiri was Freedom NZ’s Ata Tuhakaraina. Polls previously showed that it was unlikely Freedoms NZ would meet the 5 per cent threshold to enter Parliament.
