Tāmati Coffey loses Waiarki seat to Māori Party Rawiri Waititi
Labour's Tāmati Coffey has officially lost the Waiariki seat to the Māori Party's Rawiri Waititi.
Special votes have been counted and election results around the country have been finalised.
The Electoral Commission released the final results of the 2020 election today, confirming that the Māori Party's Rawiri Waititi has won Waiariki over Labour's Tamati Coffey, who will still be in Parliament as a list MP.
But with an increase to 1.2 per cent in the party vote, Māori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer will enter Parliament as a list MP.
Waititi said he was humbled and privileged about the news.
"First and foremost, I want to acknowledge Tāmati Coffey and his whānau for an outstanding campaign and for his service to Waiariki over the past three years. I also want to thank the people of Waiariki for returning our movement back to the big house."
He said he was proud Waiariki voters were "brave enough and courageous enough to trust" their candidate vote campaign strategy because they had achieved their goal of getting two representatives for Waiariki.
"I look forward to working with him to do more for our people," Waititi said.
He said he was looking forward to getting his hands dirty working with Ngarewa-Packer.
"We can now confirm that the Māori waka is back on the water and the next three years will be focused on building our movement together to ensure that my six other mates are on that waka with me come 2023."
He said he would now make contact with party leaders to discuss potential working relationships centered on the advancement of Māori.
Tāmati Coffey is still smiling despite losing his seat. Photo / Kelly Makiha
The Rotorua Daily Post was with Coffey when he results came through and he read them to a small team of about 12 supporters letting them know Waititi had increased his margin and he had lost the seat.
Coffey turned to his husband, Tim Smith, and said, "it is what it is".
He told the Rotorua Daily Post he now officially conceded the seat to Waititi.
"I was never going to concede until all of the votes were counted and I'm happy about that but now I'm happy to publicly concede the Waiariki seat to Rawiri based on the numbers but let me be clear, there was never any landslide here, this was only won by a nose."
He said he acknowledged Waititi and the hard work his campaign team did.
Tāmati Coffey at his Rotorua bar and restaurant Our House, just after he saw the final results showing he'd lost the seat. Photo / Kelly Makiha
"But actually in the same breath I'm going to put him on notice because he went around the electorate over the last six months promising a lot so I am going to hold him accountable over the next three years for all of those promises that he put out there which encouraged the vote to swing his way."
Coffey said he would be the best list MP he could possibly be and he was not going to leave the region.
When asked if he could have done anything better during the past three years, Coffey said he tried his hardest.
"No other Waiariki MP has been able to deliver a targeted investment of $2 billion into the region on top of other things like the winter energy payment and other things that help make life better for our whānau. So I tried my best but I think there were some outside forces and obviously a strong campaign by Rawiri's team which got him over the line."
When asked how he felt about losing the seat despite the huge swing to Labour this election, Coffey said he felt better that it was "only by a whisker".
"If it was a landslide it would have been a different story."
He said he was comforted by the fact Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had reminded him she lost the Auckland Central seat twice.
When asked if he could work with Waititi for the betterment of the Waiariki electorate, Coffey said it wasn't his focus.
"My focus is on delivering the Labour Māori manifesto. That's what we went out there to get support for and that's what the voters have delivered us the party vote to be able to do."
Waititi's lead doubled once the special votes had been counted from 415 on election night to 836 today.
The other electorates in the Bay of Plenty remain unchanged.
Rotorua was won by National incumbent Todd McClay with 16,212 to Claire Mahon's 15,387.
The margin between the two had decreased from 1245 in the preliminary results to 825 in the official results.
Incumbent National MP Simon Bridges took Tauranga with 18,721 votes to Jan Tinetti's 16,865, but his margin decreased from 2433 votes in the preliminary results to 1856 in the official results.
National's Todd Muller has won the Bay of Plenty electorate with 20,046 votes to Angie Warren-Clark's 16,631. His margin slightly decreased from 3472 votes in the preliminary results to 3415 votes in the official results.
National's Scott Simpson won the Coromandel electorate with 21,218 votes to Nathaniel Blomfield's 17,713. His margin narrowed from 4206 votes in the preliminary results to 3505 in the official results.
Labour's Kiri Allan won the East Coast electorate with 21,420 votes to National's Tania Tapsell with 15,089. The winning margin has increased from 4646 votes in the preliminary results to 6331 in the official results.
Taupō was won by National incumbent Louise Upston with 21,102 to Labour candidate Ala' Al-Bustanji's 15,983, with the winning margin decreasing from 5254 votes in the preliminary results to 5119 in the official results.
