Election 2020: Labor wins party vote in all South Island voters

The party’s vote in the south was a major factor contributing to the Labor Party’s resounding victory on Saturday night.

Labor won the party vote in all South Island voters, which is the first time this has happened since the MMP voting system was adopted for the 1996 General Election.

Here’s a breakdown of the party vote numbers:

Nelson: Labor 20,564 – National 8418
West Coast Tasman: Labor 17,859 – National 9974
Kaikoura: Labor 16,561 – National 11,538
Watermelon: Labor 20,222 – National 11,720
Christchurch East: Labor 20.302 – National 5779
Ilam: Labor 15,875 – National 11,011
Christchurch Central: Labor 17,467 – National 6648
Banks Peninsula: Labor 21.302 – National 9166
Selwyn: Labor 15,293 – National 12,908
Wigram: Labor 17,653 – National 7033
Rangitata: Labor 18,531 – National 12,244
Waitaki: Labor 17,058 – National 12,330
Dunedin: Labor 21,625 – Green 7001 – National 5514
Taieri: Labor 23,210 – National 8505
Southland: Labor 13,359 – National 12,777
Invercargill: Labor 17,050 – National 10,873
South: Labor 13,056 – Green 2,597 Maori 1838

The closest the National Party came to winning the party’s vote in the South was in the Southland electorate by a margin of 582 votes.

Labor claimed 38.5 percent of the party’s votes, while the national got 36.8 percent.

The electorates of the South Island where the Labor Party won its most emphatic victories were those of Christchurch East (59.7 percent of the votes) and the electorates of Taieri (58.8 percent of the votes).

The National Party fell behind by 14,705 votes in the Taieri electorate, while it was 16,111 votes behind Labor in the Dunedin electorate.

The Green Party had a historic gain in the Dunedin electorate (17.9%), where it surpassed the National (14.1%) for the first time since the MMP began, to claim second place in the party’s vote. behind Labor (55.2%).

While the Dunedin electorate is new this year, in the previous Dunedin North electorate, the National Party never ranked below second in the party’s vote.

Last night, Taieri Green candidate Scott Willis said he was “satisfied” with the result that they were outperforming the party vote in Dunedin and Taieri compared to the last election.

“We look like a really strong result from the South.”

Nationally, the only constituencies in which National led the party’s vote were Taranaki-King Country, Waikato, Epsom, and Tāmaki.

Labor even leads the party’s vote in Judith Collins’ own electorate in Papakura by a margin of 434 votes.

Despite not leading the party vote, the National Party managed to win the electoral seats of Invercargill, Southland, Waitaki, Selwyn, Kaikōura and Waimakariri in the South Island.

Last night Taieri’s new electorate MP Ingrid Leary said that even though the area was “staunch Labor”, they still faced the challenges of a new candidate and the change of name and boundaries of the electorate.

Dunedin National Party roster MP Michael Woodhouse said yesterday that he was saddened by the party as they would not have the same power of representation in Parliament.

Dunedin MP David Clark said it was very encouraging and that it was a privilege to have the trust of the people in his constituency.

National’s Taieri candidate, Liam Kernaghan, said he was dedicated to the south and would be looking to spend the next three years here and have “a good chance again.”

Dunedin Green candidate Jack Brasil said it was exciting to have a left-wing progressive MP walking in.