Election 2023: Who won Whanganui’s electorates?

Labour's Steph Lewis and National's Carl Bates are the frontrunners for the Whanganui electorate. Photos / Bevan Conley

The six-week election campaign has come to an end as we find out who has won the race for the Whanganui, Rangitīkei, and Te Tai Hauāuru.

Whanganui

National’s Carl Bates has beaten Labour MP Steph Lewis by more than 5000 votes to win the Whanganui seat.

Preliminary results show Bates won 16,446 votes with Lewis in second on 11,376. NZ First’s Williams Arnold got 2694 votes ahead of the Green’s Marion Sanson on 1547, ACT’s Craig Dredge on 1405 and the Animal Justice Party’s Sandra Kyle on 322.

Speaking from the National gathering at the Laird Park Bowling Club, Bates thanked the people involved in the campaign, which he said had been huge.

He said he had a “tranquil” start to election day.

“We went for a parkrun this morning and then took my son to his swimming lesson and then we went down to the market and headed off and voted,” Bates said.

“I suppose I’m a little bit of a traditionalist.”

Bates said it had been a great campaign.

“We’ve knocked on a huge amount of doors throughout the electorate, talked to a lot of people and were really focused on the issues that were important to them,” he said.

Speaking from The Barracks Sports Bar, Lewis says despite her party managing to claw back in the polls of the past few weeks, it looked like National was trending higher.

“Obviously, it’s not the result we were hoping for.”

“My team has put in 110 per cent in and we gave it absolutely everything, and I gave it absolutely everything in my term as an MP, and if I’m fortunate enough I’ll do the same again.”

Lewis said she hadn’t expected the mood for change to be to this degree.

“None of the polls polled like this.

“I thought it would be a lot closer, I’m not sure of the latest numbers in terms of the left bloc versus the right bloc, but obviously that’s the important thing.”

She said she had expected it to be closer.

Lewis said she spent most of the day with her kids and had a few friends drop around to her home.

”I just want to thank my campaign team and everybody who has jumped on board with me over the last few months. It’s been a real team effort.”

Her volunteers and campaign team were feeling pretty tired tonight, she said.

”We’ve gone out there and left it all on the floor.”

NZ First candidate William Arnold is in third and his party has pulled in 2316 party votes so far, second behind only Labour and National.

He said he spent the evening at home with some of his campaign team.

”You don’t really know until it’s all counted.”

“I did the best I could do, I’ve had to keep working four days a week so I couldn’t get out there and campaign like some of the others, but I’m happy with how I’ve gone.

”I’m optimistic, I think New Zealand First is definitely back in there, we’ve just got to wait and see.”

For Green Party Whanganui candidate Marion Sanson, election day fell on another special occasion.

“It happens to be my birthday actually, so I’ve had quite a lot of calls and people visiting with gifts so that was nice,” she said.

Her day started by making breakfast for a visitor before going to a vigil for the ongoing war between Israel and Palestine.

She was now spending the night partying and watching the election results roll in.

Sanson said she and her campaign were pleased with how the campaign had gone.

“I wanted to talk about climate change and climate action needed, so I got to do that and that’s important to me and to the party,” Sanson said.

Te Tai Hauāuru

Te Pāti Māori’s Debbie Ngarewa-Packer beat Labour’s Soraya Peke-Mason by more than 6000 votes in Te Tai Hauāuru with National’s Harete Hipango a distant third ahead of Vision New Zealand’s Paris Winiata.

Ngarewa-Packer said she spent today looking after moko and doing “about fifteen loads of laundry”.

”I wish I could say I did something real fancy and sophisticated, but to be honest I live in a three-generational home and it looked like it had three years of three-generational catch-up of housework,” she said.

“I had a great day. We’ve run a great campaign and done everything we could do.”

Te Pāti Māori's Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Te Pāti Māori was in a great space, she said.

”We set out with the objective to grow the movement, so tonight that’s what our end goal is.

”Obviously I’d like to be honoured with the seat but we’d also like to see an increase in the party vote, so yeah feeling good

Ngarewa-Packer is in Hāwera tonight and heading to the TSB hub to join a couple of hundred people.

”There’s just so much we were up against, I think it’s hard with such a big region,” she said.

”There was also some ugliness that we had to sort of pivot around and try and run a clean campaign, and a fun, upbeat campaign. It was about positive politicking and I hope that’s what we’ve landed.”

Peke-Mason said she was feeling excited that the election was finally here.

“A lot of hard work has gone on behind the scenes and I’m so grateful for my team, it’s been a fantastic journey.”

Her second campaign for central government had been a lot more enjoyable, she said.

”It’s still very early, and obviously everyone wants to win but only one person can at the end of the day.

“Debbie Ngarewa-Packer was a co-leader with three years of experience in parliament which did make a difference to the outcome of any election.

”It’s not over yet, we’ve got the rest of the night to go, but fingers crossed for a good outcome for the Labour Party.”

National’s Harete Hipango said she was feeling “buoyant and realistically optimistic”.

There had been an absence of twenty-one years of a National party candidate in the Māori seat, she said.

”I recognise the fact that after a twenty-year absence I was not likely to win the seat, but it was about winning some hearts and votes along the way.”

She began today with a walk with her partner.

”Politics is a tough gig and sometimes we lose the balance because we get caught up with long hours.”

Coffee and cheesecake had been her “little bit of indulgence”.

”That was a lovely start to the day.”

Hipango is joining National candidate Carl Bates in Whanganui for the evening.

Rangitīkei

In Rangitīkei National’s Suze Redmayne beat Labour’s Zulfiqar Butt more than 8000 votes.

National's Suze Redmayne.

Butt said he spent election day at home.

“My car was wrapped in my election banner so I hid my car in my garage and have been waiting at home all day,” Butt said.

He said both the Rangitīkei and Palmerston North campaign teams for Labour were spending election night together at the Takaro Bowling Club in Palmerston North.

He said he was confident and hopeful for a good result.

“From listening and talking to the people all over the area, it was a very positive response,” Butt said.

“People call it a farmers electorate, but even from the farmers the feedback was very encouraging.”