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National MP Denise Lee is out of Parliament after losing the Maungakiekie seat in Auckland after special votes were counted.
Preliminary results of the 2020 general election had indicated that Lee, the incumbent, had beaten Labor candidate Priyanca Radhakrishnan by 580 electoral votes.
However, the final count, released on Friday, showed the seat flipped, with Radhakrishnan winning by 635 votes.
AUCKLAND COUNCIL
Special votes in the 2020 general election removed Denise Lee from Parliament. (File photo)
Lee is ranked 34th on the National Party’s list, which means he was unable to return to Parliament. National will occupy 33 seats in the House this term, of which 10 are roster seats.
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* Election 2020: Labor Party and Maori claim seats, National loses two MPs in final vote count
* Election 2020: Voters reward national candidates who spoke out against Judith Collins
* Election 2020: National’s Denise Lee clings to Maungakiekie’s seat, alone
Lee is one of two national MPs to lose their seats in the final vote count, another blow to the party after an already dismal election result.
Matt King lost the Northland seat to Labor candidate Willow Jean-Prime by 163 votes.
Following the announcement of the final count, Lee issued a statement, congratulating Radhakrishnan and acknowledging the efforts of Ricardo Menéndez March, the Green Party candidate for Maungakiekie.
She said she was proud of her accomplishments in the area and grateful for her supporters and campaign volunteers.
“I loved every minute of representing such a diverse, hard-working and beautiful area,” she said.
“At the end of the day, politics can be difficult, but I am grateful for every minute I have had to serve others. That has always been my DNA. “
Supplied
Priyanca Radhakrishnan de Labor is the new MP for Maungakiekie.
During the election campaign, Auckland University politics professor Dr Lara Greaves, a researcher involved in the New Zealand Election Survey who has followed the results of the past nine elections, said she hoped Maungakiekie’s seat would change. of hands.
Since the 2017 elections, the boundaries of Maungakiekie, which encompass suburbs at the southern tip of the Auckland Isthmus such as Greenlane and Ellerslie, have changed due to population growth in the region.
Many of the lower socio-economic areas, including Pt England and Mt Wellington South that were part of Maungakiekie in 2017, were absorbed into the expanded electorate of Panmure-Ōtāhuhu.
The western boundary, where Maungakiekie meets the electorate of Mt Roskill, also changed to include Oranga and the easternmost streets of Three Kings, which are more affluent.
After analyzing the demographics of the electorate, Greaves said the boundary changes, coupled with the Labor Party’s high results in the polls, could lead to Radhakrishnan securing the seat.
She was right.
Lee is a former Auckland councilor. In the last parliamentary term, he was National spokesperson for the local government.
Less than two weeks before the 2020 election, Lee was alleged to have criticized national leader Judith Collins’ promise to review the Auckland Council if elected.
A statement attributed to Lee, released by the party, said that she “sent an email to my fellow MPs that it was intended solely for internal purposes” and that she supported Collins as leader “without reservation”, she said.
Radhakrishnan has been contacted for comment.
