One city's battle mirrors nation

National's Dave Bennett (pictured) resoundingly turned the tables on Labour incumbent Dianne Yates in Hamilton East on election night. Picture / Amos Chapple

All the drama of the election - the winners, the losers, and most of all the tight result - was again reflected in the two Hamilton seats, renowned for their tendency to reflect what the nation is thinking.

Hamilton West has a reputation for picking the candidate from whichever party is in government or gets the most of the party vote.

This year was so close it might as well have been the National/Labour countrywide battle.

Incumbent Labour MP Martin Gallagher hung in, but by a whisker as he watched his majority slashed from 5574 in 2002 to just 688.

A despondent National opponent Tim Macindoe said yesterday that he did not hold any great hopes of nudging through on the special votes.

"Hamilton West is probably the most extraordinary microcosm of the New Zealand electorate.

"Only once in my lifetime has it not been won by the party in Government or with most party votes - in 1993 when Gallagher just squeaked in."

Mr Macindoe's night went from high to low very suddenly - he was leading all the way until 86 per cent of the vote had been counted.

"But then some booths from Labour areas started coming in. So that was a gutting experience because everyone was so hopeful."

Mr Gallagher said the electorate would always be "a line-ball seat".

It was critically close throughout the campaign, but Labour's indicator booths were hinting he might have won from the time about 20 per cent of the vote was in.

"We were cautiously optimistic." Mr Gallagher said his small majority was due to National's resurgence nationwide.

"This result here is very positive indeed, given what happened across the country."

It was a different story on the other side of the city, where Hamilton East continued as a yo-yo seat.

First-time candidate Dave Bennett - a Te Awamutu farmer and National's youngest at 32 years - won the seat back for National from Labour incumbent Dianne Yates.

As forecast by polling in the local newspapers, Ms Yates' slender 614 majority of 2002 was wiped away and turned into a 5223 majority for Mr Bennett.

The majority is the biggest any candidate has enjoyed in the seat for some time - Ms Yates won the seat from former National MP Tony Steel, who won it in 1999 with a majority of 692.

Mr Bennett put the turnaround down to a "mood for change" and hard campaigning.

He said his transport policy - his local platform was the $500 million toll-free expressway from Cambridge to Auckland - was also helpful.

Ms Yates will return to Parliament on Labour's list.

She did not return phone calls yesterday, but had previously said she wanted to be more than a list candidate. "I am a constituency MP. I'm a local person."

Mr Macindoe was too far down the list to get in as a list MP. It was his third tilt at getting into Parliament - in 2002 he ran against Winston Peters in Tauranga, and in 1999 as a list-only candidate.

"Ironically I had a higher list ranking that year than I do this year," he said.

"After three elections on the trot you have to wonder why that would happen. Maybe someone is trying to give me a message. I'm obviously a slow learner.

"But whoever stands in Hamilton West for National next time will win the seat so it would be quite nice if it could be me."