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Labor has built on its historic electoral victory, the Maori party has a second MP, and National’s annihilation has worsened with the final tally of votes cast in the 2020 elections.
The official results of the election, which include more than 500,000 special votes, were announced by the Election Commission on Friday.
National MPs Matt King and Denise Lee were out of Parliament, losing Northland and Maungakiekie electorates, reducing the National Party to 33 seats in Parliament. Dr. Shane Reti will remain in Parliament as a list MP, despite losing the Whangarei seat.
Labor demanded another seat in the House, reaching exactly 50 percent of the vote and winning marginal victories in three more electorate seats. Emily Henderson, Labor, will enter the House having won the Whangārei seat.
Phil Walter / Getty Images
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has scored a more resounding victory with the final tally of the vote in the 2020 elections: Labor won 50 percent of the vote and an additional MP in the House.
READ MORE:
* Election 2020: Special votes could worsen the loss of the National Party.
* The detail: special votes could change the election results
* Election 2020: Labor Party, but will special voting change some things?
* Election 2020: Jacinda Ardern claims biggest Labor victory in 50 years
The Maori Party increased its share of the party’s votes to 1.2 percent, which means that co-leader Debbie Ngarewa Packer will now enter Parliament while co-leader Rawiri Waititi retained his leadership in the Waiariki seat.
ACT lost 0.4% of its share of the vote, going from 8% to 7.6%. The Green Party went from 7.6% to 7.9%.
The results of the referenda on recreational cannabis and euthanasia remain unchanged. The majority voted against the legalization of recreational cannabis, 50.7% voted “no” and 48.4% voted “yes”.
There was a fractional shift for the end-of-life election referendum, with 65.1% voting “yes” and 33.7% voting “no,” a 0.1% shift toward “no.”
On election night three weeks ago, there were MPs in various electorate seats (Whangārei, Northland, Auckland Central, Invercargill) whose fate was at stake with small margins.
Green MP Chloe Swarbrick claimed an unexpected victory in Auckland Central, but with a 492-vote margin, Labor candidate Helen White was unwilling to budge. The final vote tally increased Swarbrick’s lead, to a margin of 1068.
RYAN ANDERSON / Stuff
National leader Judith Collins in the upcoming elections. The party obtained 25.6 percent of the votes in the final count.
The closest race was Whangārei, with National’s Reti holding a 164-vote lead. Labor’s Emily Henderson won by 431 votes after the special votes were counted, but since Reti was placed fifth on the party’s list, she will retain a House seat.
Priyanca Radhakrishnan from Labor won the Maungakiekie seat from Lee by 635 seats. In Northland, Labor candidate Willow Jean-Prime has beaten King by 163 votes.
National MP Maureen Pugh lost her seat in Parliament in the recount of special votes in the previous two elections, only to return with the resignation of one MP.
As the lowest-ranking MP in the 2020 election, it was speculated that Pugh would lose his seat again.
However, Pugh retained his seat on Friday.
Election Director Alicia Wright said the Covid-19 pandemic had not discouraged people from voting, with 2.9 million people voting.
The highest turnout since 1999 was recorded, with 82.2% of those registered to vote casting a vote. The final enrollment rate was 94.1%, the highest since 2008.
“This was not a typical election, there were two referenda, another huge increase in early voting, and for the first time people were able to register to vote on Election Day,” he said.
He said the commission had counted the votes cast on election night and had been counted again, with the special votes.
Special votes include mail-in votes, overseas votes, and votes from people who voted in an electorate in which they are not registered.
