Young MP's first task to resign from Super City

New Botany MP Jami-Lee Ross and his wife, Lucy Schwaner, at the victory party. Photo / Michael Craig

New Botany MP Jami-Lee Ross will resign from his Super City council seat before he heads to Wellington tomorrow for his first caucus meeting.

But the plans for his first week do not seem to be overly exciting.

After stressing his plan to "hit the ground running", Mr Ross said his first week would include "getting office space sorted and arranging myself an office in Botany".

Mr Ross, who at 25 will be the youngest current MP, had previously promised to resign from his Howick seat on the council if he won the Botany byelection, and he plans to hand in his resignation today.

Both National and Labour claimed a victory of sorts after Saturday's byelection: Mr Ross won with 55 per cent of the votes, but Labour's Michael Wood increased the candidate vote for his party from 21 per cent to 28.

Paul Young of the New Citizen Party, with 10.5 per cent of the votes, came a surprising third and may have taken much of the candidate vote that went to Act's Kenneth Wang in 2008.

The Act candidate, Lyn Murphy, came fourth with 4.5 per cent.

The result is preliminary as the special votes are not yet counted.

The official result is expected on Wednesday next week.

Only 36.5 per cent of enrolled voters bothered to vote on Saturday, the second lowest turnout since 1980.

A number of factors contributed, including the earthquake in Christchurch, low media interest, poor weather on byelection day, and the general election being only eight months away.

Mr Wood and Labour leader Phil Goff said the people of Botany had swung 4 per cent to Labour, considering the party vote in the electorate in 2008, and it was strong message against the Government.

"This should be a wake-up call to National that its failure to manage the economy and the impact of its policies are alienating more and more New Zealanders," Mr Goff said.

But Mr Ross laughed off Labour's interpretation.

"I hardly think that Michael's right when he says people are angry with the Government.

"Only a third of them wanted to come out to vote, and more than half voted for the Government and myself," he said.

"There was no Green Party candidate, and also Michael Wood's predecessor Koro Tawa was not exactly the most visible person in the last election, so that all contributed to the result.

"I also understand it's the first time in about 30 years that the sitting Government not only won a byelection but maintained its percentage of the vote."

Prime Minister John Key said it was a "quirky" byelection.

"The turnout is so low and conditions are so unusual that I wouldn't read too much into it.

"We're just very pleased with the win and [Mr Ross] will make a good long-term MP for Botany."

The lowest turnout for a byelection in the past few decades was around 32 per cent for the 2004 Te Tai Hauauru byelection, when Tariana Turia won 92 per cent of the total votes for the new Maori Party.