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The Maori Party is about to return to Parliament with votes still counted in the Waiariki electorate.
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Votes are still being counted in the Waiariki electorate, where Labor MP Tāmati Coffey is trailing by minimal margins. Source: 1 NEWS
Labor candidate Tamati Coffey, who won the seat in the last election, is behind Maori party candidate Rawiri Waititi by 400 votes.
“It’s very close and for that reason I’m not ready to give in on this yet,” Coffey said.
Waititi called the results so far “simple arithmetic” and Waiariki is “very good at math.”
“It was a two-for-one deal that meant there were more Maori in Parliament. I’m really sad that I can’t take the other seven. “
Special votes continue to be counted.
Waititi said he is “elated” by the results.
“We are facing the red tidal wave and our waka is the only one that has violated that whitewash, or the color red,” he said.
The party was sent into electoral exile after Waiariki voted against Te Ururoa Flavell in 2017.
However, Maori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa Packer said she is unlikely to join Waititi through the party’s additional votes.
“Now we have to end as a caucus meeting, find out what support we need to put in place for Rawiri,” he said.
“We have a lot of work to do now.”
Co-leader John Tamihere hopes for a new leadership with Labor.
“The opportunity for the Labor Party is to show what our people want, which is a Labor-Maori coalition,” Tamihere said.
Maori Labor MPs have the largest share of the Maori vote, winning six of the seven Maori seats altogether.
Labor’s Peeni Henare wants him to be rewarded, saying the party has “made it clear that our people are important in this.”
“We did it with the Maori seats and now we should be getting those results,” he said.
It includes Te Tai Tokerau MP Kelvin Davis appointed deputy prime minister, which has already been raised by Jacinda Ardern.
Waititi said they will continue to build the party for the next three years.
