Election 2020: No winners declared in Whangārei and Northland electorates

Election night has left a clear result across the country, with a red tide in which Labor returns to power with a massive victory, with 49 percent of the vote guaranteeing the party enough seats to rule alone.

But in the north, two of the three electorates have been left with uncertainty, with voting too close to declare a winner overnight in the Northland and Whangārei electorates.

Furthermore, NZ First is out of Parliament after Northland’s candidate Shane Jones came in a distant third place and the party failed to get the 5% of the party’s votes it needed.

In Whangārei, incumbent National Party MP Dr. Shane Reti beat Emily Henderson of the Labor Party on the night with 15,637 votes, compared to 15,475 for the first-time candidate. It’s a 162-vote lead, but he said he was too close to claim victory.

And in Northland, incumbent national MP Matt King was also unwilling to claim victory, despite winning the night’s vote.

King won 15,332 votes on the night, 742 ahead of Willow-Jean Prime’s 14,590.

In the Te Tai Tokerau electorate, though it was a clear victory for incumbent Labor MP and deputy party leader Kelvin Davis, who garnered 11,594 votes, 6,601 ahead of the

Mariameno Kapa-Kingi of the Maori Party with 4,993 votes.

Reti said that special votes are not yet counted, and said his tellers at Whangārei polling places had noticed that many special votes were being cast today, and many more than usual.

Special votes traditionally favor the left, so he was not prepared to claim victory.

Furthermore, he said, with the contest so close, there was always the possibility of a vote recount.

Reti said it is obvious that there has been a big shift towards the Labor Party and that he feels for his colleagues who have lost their seats in other parts of the country.

He said the party had lost some very experienced and hardworking MPS, like Nick Smith, who lost his Nelson seat to Labor.

Reti said the party was overtaken by the Labor surge in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic.

” It’s difficult when the government has the talking stick at 1pm every day (in daily Covid-19 updates). Covid has taken all the oxygen out of the campaign … and we’ve been caught up in that (Labor) surge across the country. ”

Labor candidate Emily Henderson said she “had no idea” when asked if she would ask for a recount if the end result was close.

“I’m still absolutely in awe that we’re so close, that Whangārei has supported us in this way, so I don’t know at this stage. It will depend on how close I am.”

On what she considered “close”, she replied: “How long is a piece of rope?”

Whangārei’s lawyer steered Dr. Reti until approximately 75 percent of the votes were counted before the latter came forward.

Henderson said he was “in a state of shock” to be elbow to elbow with Dr. Reti in a royal blue seat that National has had for decades.

Whangārei was first created for the 1972 elections when Murray Smith won it for Labor.
It has been in the hands of National ever since.

Reti won the seat in the 2017 election by 10,967 votes over Labor candidate Tony Savage.

The candidate of National’s Northland electorate, Matt King, wasn’t ready to tell his supporters that he had won the seat when they headed home from the Pioneer Tavern shortly after 11 p.m.

With a margin of less than 1,000 and nearly 20 percent of the polling places, not to mention special votes yet to be counted, it would be premature to declare victory, he said.

Due to the delay in counting the special votes, it could take another two weeks before you are sure you have won, he said.

“I’m just holding on,” he said.

“I am disappointed that Labor has received so much support in the back of Covid-19. It was not based on performance, it was based on fear. I am sorry to my colleagues, we are going to lose a lot of talent and I am going to lose a lot of friends “.

Northland Willow-Jean Prime from Labor felt quite relaxed despite being behind King.

He said he has proposed a three-term challenge to give the job to Labor and has been working hard for three years.

On NZ First’s departure from Parliament, Prime said the contribution of that party was worth acknowledging, particularly the Provincial Growth Fund’s emphasis on infrastructure projects in Northland.

But he said that the demise of NZ First showed that politics was a brutal game in the sense that the people who played could be popular parliamentarians one minute and out of parliament the next.

Speaking from Labor HQ in Auckland, Davis said he was “very honored that the people at the
The electorate of Tai Tokerau has asked me to represent them for another three years.

“I owe you a debt of gratitude,” he said.

“I would like to thank you very much. I have to keep going out and earn your trust. We have made great strides in the first term of office. It’s about maintaining that.”

Davis congratulated Kapa-Kingi on his campaign.

“She is a wonderful woman and I would like to congratulate her and thank her for the very good campaign she ran. It is the first time that I have run a campaign where I have not been bombarded with negative comments.”

Kapa-Kingi conceded with good humor.

Kapa-Kingi, who passed Te Aupōuri and Ngāti Kahu ki Whangaroa and is ranked No. 6 on the Maori Party list, said she was “excited and encouraged” with the number of votes she got.

ELECTION NIGHT RESULTS:

Feed:
Shane Reti – National: 15,637 votes.
Emily Henderson Labor: 15,475.
David Seymour – Law: 1828.
David Wilson – NZ First: 1319.
Moea Armstrong – Greens: 1248.
Ciara Swords – TOP: 592.
Chris Wetere – Advance NZ: 522.

Kerry Campbell – New Conservatives: 470. Jennifer de Jonge – ALCP: 410.
Chris Leitch – Social Credit: 320.
Daniel Watts – ONE PART: 242.

Northland Electorate:
Matt King – National: 15,332 votes.
Willow-Jean Prime – Workforce: 14,590.
Shane Jones – NZ First: 4543.
Darleen Tana Hoff-Nielsen – Greens: 1301.
Mark Cameron – Law: 1104.
Nathan Mitchell – Advance NZ: 682.
Trevor Barefoote – New Conservatives: 599.
Mike Shaw – Independent: 409.
Helen Jeremiah – TOP: 254.
Michelle Mitcalfe – New Zealand Outdoors: 167.
Brad Flutey – Social Credit: 73.
Sophia Xiao-Colley – Harmony: 25.

North:
Kelvin Davis – Workforce: 11,594.
Mariameno Kapa-Kingi –
Maori party. 4,993.
Maki Herbert – ALCP: 1388.
Billy Te Kahika – Advance NZ: 976.
Janice Araranga-Ephia – ONE Party: 321.
Daniel Shortland – New Conservatives: 217.
Clinton Dearlove – Independent: 216.
Landscape dream – Independent: 81.