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Invercargill National Party candidate Penny Simmonds is “a little nervous” about calling her own victory in New Zealand’s southernmost city, having finished just 685 votes ahead of Labor candidate Liz Craig on the night of the elections.
She will wait for the special votes to be counted in the next few days.
Speaking to supporters in a function room at the Ascot Park Hotel shortly before the final vote counting took place, he said it had been a difficult night but he would spend the next few days hoping for a positive outcome.
Simmonds trailed Craig for most of the night before a late surge put her ahead, 16,372 to 15,687 when the final tally was made.
Running for a seat in parliament for the first time, he recognized Invercargill Mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt, New Zealand’s longest-serving mayor, in the courtroom and joked that he did not know how he had done it for five decades.
“One night is enough for me.”
It has been a long campaign, he said.
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She thanked her many supporters and said hundreds of people had surrounded her in a very supportive environment.
Before cutting a themed cake of the National Holiday, to the cheers of the room, he said: “I am going to cut this cake, not as a celebration of the result, but as a celebration to reach the end.”
She later told reporters that she was not sure if the boundary changes in Invercargill’s electorate had helped her.
He had mixed feelings, given the result for the National Party.
“We have lost a lot of good people.”
The party would rebuild, he said.
Robyn Edie / Stuff
Penny Simmonds, Invercargill National Party Candidate at the Ascot Park Hotel, awaiting the results of the 2020 election. Pictured from left, Penny Simmonds, Invercargill Mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt, young Nat Sam White and former Invercargill National MP Sarah Dowie.
He acknowledged that Jacinda Ardern had been “on a roll.”
Simmonds, executive director of the Southern Institute of Technology for 23 years, was named to replace Sarah Dowie as the national candidate for Invercargill, who announced in February her intention to leave politics.
Married to farmer Marty for 36 years with three daughters, Simmonds has previously said that she was determined to National’s commitment to rolling back the newly merged polytechnic structure, and was passionate about the need to address the state of the southern bridges and fix the new freshwater regulations regarding pugging and planting dates of crops that she believed made no sense.
He was concerned that if the cannabis referendum continued, there would be big implications for the mental health of young people.
“I know that prohibition is not the perfect answer, but I think it is better than more liberal legislation that could lead to more frequent and open use,” he previously said.
Simmonds was aware that SIT has played an important role in expanding Southland’s cultural base through the presence of international students, and the damage caused by Covid-19 will have an impact on this.
She says it would be sad to see a reduction in the level of diversity that migrant students overcome, but felt that border security imperatives can be met in ways that allow these students to be brought in earlier than normal tourism and travel. market because they will be here longer and therefore quarantine is not such a big problem for them.
Over the past few years, Simmonds has been involved with the Southland Regional Development Strategy, the Southland sports community and has had a central focus on education.
