Former Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei's political career likely to be over

Former Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei's political career looks set to end tonight. Photo/File

Metiria Turei's political career looks likely to be over.

The former Green Party co-leader is trailing Labour's Rino Tirikatene in the Te Tai Tonga electorate.

With 21.9% of the vote counted she is trailing Tirikatene by more than 1600 votes.

Turei was removed from the Green Party list when she stepped down as co-leader after she admitted to benefit fraud 20 years ago.

She came under growing pressure after she admitted to the historical offending and eventually gave up her position after eight years as co-leader.

When she stepped down in August Turei said that if she continued as co leader it would undermine all the Green Party's hard work over many years.

The scrutiny, which had "become unbearable, frankly" was the main reason for standing down, she said.

She has been a member of parliament since 2002.

The results don't look promising for the Maori party either with Labour ahead in every Maori electorate so far.

With only 1.1 per cent of the party vote, they will not get back into parliament without winning an electorate seat.