Election results 2020: Greens’ Chloe Swarbrick wins Auckland Central

Auckland Central has turned green.

Chloe Swarbrick, 26, has won the seat after defeating Helen White of Labor.

The electorate was previously held by Nikki Kaye of National.

Swarbrick won 9,060 votes, White got 8,568 and National’s Emma Mellow was third with 7,566.

The Greens are expected to have 10 MPs in the new Parliament.

Earlier tonight, Swarbrick told Mike Hosking of Newstalk ZB that she attributed her advantage to a community campaign.

She said the Green Party is excited about its share of the party vote.

Two weeks ago, White was leading in a poll of Colmar Brunton with 35%, Mellow with 26% and Swarbrick in third place with 26%.

White ran for the seat in 2017, 1,581 votes behind Kaye, who had held the seat since 2008 when she beat Judith Tizard from the Labor Party, becoming the first national MP to win the seat.

Swarbrick, who ran a “two tick” campaign, was unfazed by the poor vote of the Greens electorate in 2017 and went on to win the seat, as a guarantee in case the Greens did not exceed the 5% threshold of party votes to return. to Parliament and a burning desire to represent Auckland Central.

“What else is the use of politics, if not practicing the art of the possible,” Swarbrick told the Herald last month.

Mellow, a 30-year-old communications manager at ANZ bank, was selected at the end of the article after a messy and failed process by party officials.

White, who grew up in Freemans Bay and lives outside the electorate in nearby Morningside, practices at Chancery Chambers in the central city and specializes in employment law.