Incumbent MP Tim van de Molen has retained his seat in the Waikato electorate.
As 99.1 per cent of the votes in the rural electorate are counted, van de Molen, with 22,692 is over 15,000 votes ahead of Labour’s Jamie Toko who received 7104 votes.
Van de Molen celebrated witharound 35 supporters, friends and family at his home in Tamahere and said the mood was “very buoyant”.
“I’m really chuffed. We have a strong lead in the Waikato. It’s exciting to have another three years in Parliament, especially with National in Government.”
What he described as an “incident” has cost him a ministerial position: Van de Molen was found to be in contempt of Parliament a couple of months ago and National leader Christopher Luxon then said he won’t be putting van de Molen in his first Cabinet.
However, van de Molen said he is not ruling a ministerial job out in the future saying there might be an opportunity for him to become in a “future reshuffle”.
