2020 election: Nick Smith gives up Nelson seat to Labor

In Nelson, with more than 79 percent of the vote counted, the former incumbent national MP, Dr. Nick Smith, has ceded to Rachel Boyack of the Labor Party.

Smith received applause from supporters at Labor headquarters as he headed into the room to congratulate Rachel Boyack on her historic victory. Boyack is the first woman to be Nelson’s MP.

Rachel Boyack “genuinely” recognized Smith and “all he has done for our community over an incredibly long time.” Smith gave Boyack a “big congratulations” and said he would “pass on that mantle.

A few hundred or so votes, Boyack had held a strong 4,000 lead for much of the night.

Her main rival, Labor candidate Rachel Boyack, was with 16,935 votes, well ahead of Smith with 13,351.

Smith appeared to accept that he could lose his seat before the first results appeared, telling the crowd that he was “philosophical about where it could all end.”

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The 2020 campaign was the eleventh for Smith, who was first elected in 1990 as a deputy from the former Tasmanian electorate. In 1996, he first held, and won, Nelson’s seat and has held it ever since.

Smith has held 13 ministerial portfolios during his 30 years in Parliament, in the Bolger, Shipley, Key and English cabinets, spanning Conservation, Building and Construction, Housing, Education, Immigration, Corrections, Welfare, Treaty Negotiations, Environment , ACC, Climate. Change and local government.

If Boyack wins the seat and becomes the first female MP from the electorate, in keeping with a long-standing tradition in Nelson, Smith is expected to come to her to concede in person.