More than 90 per cent of Hawke's Bay people eligible to vote in this month's General Election have enrolled, according to the latest details from the Electoral Commission.
On Tuesday the commission reported that 54,172 in the Hastings-based Tukituki electorate were on the General or Maori rolls for the election in which more than 3 million people are expected to file through thousands of polling booths throughout the country on polling day, September 23. It represents 93.47 per cent of the estimated number in the electorate eligible to vote.
In the Napier electorate, which includes Wairoa, there were 52,581 on the rolls, representing 92.09 per cent of the number eligible to vote, and the Wairarapa electorate - which includes Dannevirke, Waipukurau and Wairoa and other areas throughout the Tararua and Central Hawke's Bay districts - had 52,396 on the rolls, representing 95.77 per cent of those eligible.
Of those almost 160,000 people, 46,611 were enrolled to vote in Tukituki, where seven candidates seek the position vacated by retiring National Party MP Craig Foss, 45,882 are in the Napier electorate where incumbent Labour Party MP Stuart Nash faces five challengers, Napier, 48,134 are in Wairarapa, where National Party MP is in a four-way contest which promises to be one of the more intriguing in the election, and 18,522 are in Maori seat Ikaroa Rawhiti in which incumbent Labour Party MP Meka Whaitiri, from Whakatu, is up against two other candidates.
Nationwide there are estimated to be about 3.57 million people eligible to vote in the election which will decide about 120 electorate and party list members of Parliament for the next three years.