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The National Party faces a bloodbath only equaled by its beating in 2002.
With most of the votes counted, the party had only 26.8 percent of the party’s votes, meaning it would lose 19 of its current deputies.
The party will lose many seats it has held for years, such as the Christchurch Ilam, held by deputy leader Gerry Brownlee since its inception in 1996.
But leader Judith Collins appears willing to hang on to the party’s leadership, which she won just a few months ago after an extremely troubled year for the party.
Chris McKeen / Stuff
Judith Collins admitted defeat.
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Collins had tears in his eyes when he made an award speech to a noisy crowd of supporters, promising that National would be “back” and start the campaign for 2023 immediately.
“We will take some time to reflect and we will review and change,” he said.
“National will emerge from this defeat as a stronger, more disciplined and more connected party.”
However, a national deputy who spoke with Stuff He said there would be “blood on the ground” for the party next week, when it will convene for a post-election caucus.
Greg Bowker / Getty Images
National Party finance spokesman Paul Goldsmith reflects on his party’s outcome.
“There will be blood on the ground next week. I’m not sure who. Perhaps of all ”, said the deputy.
National prides itself on having a connection across electorate seats, but is projected to have only 26 of them after the election, 15 fewer than in the last election.
The party lost fringe seats like Nelson and deeper blue ones like Ilam, Hamilton East and Ōtaki.
But it was in the party vote that National felt the most pain, with many candidates vastly outnumbering the dismal support of party votes.
With nearly all votes counted, Labor led National in the party’s vote by 45 percent to 31 percent in Selwyn’s electorate, a seat National won by 19,639 candidate votes in the last election, the largest majority in the country.
ACT had clearly received a large following from National, and was on track to finish as the third-largest game.
Chris McKeen / Stuff
It was a quiet start at the National headquarters in Auckland on election night.
But it was the Labor Party led by Jacinda Ardern that had dominated National across the country.
Veteran MP Nick Smith has admitted defeat in Nelson’s seat, which he has held for more than two decades.
Fringe seats like Hutt South seem definitely to be lost, despite National MP Chris Bishop’s efforts to run more as a local champion than a national MP.
Bishop is outnumbering his party’s vote, as are many national MPs, but he is still on track to lose.
The atmosphere was moody at the National Party function in Auckland, with many downcast faces and some negative feelings towards the media.
Earlier in the evening, party chairman Peter Goodfellow said he expected the results to improve slightly for National.
Collins said in recent days that he believed the polls, which have consistently shown a Labor victory, were wrong.
National Rep. Mark Mitchell, who is expected to eventually challenge Collins for leadership, which he has sought twice before, told Newstalk ZB that leadership talks should not begin immediately.
However, he said the party had been wrong to oust Simon Bridges from the party leadership earlier this year.
“He did not agree with how things happened with Simon. From that point on, we had some major problems that we never got over. “
Steven Walton / Stuff
According to the first results, the national deputy director and current deputy of Ilam, Gerry Brownlee, is in trouble.
After years of stability, National was rocked by riots in 2020, with three separate leaders throughout the year.
Bridges was brought down by Todd Muller, who resigned due to stressful mental health shortly after at work.
Collins then won a leadership race against Mitchell.
