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National has claimed a comfortable victory in the Hamilton West by-election.
The preliminary results from Saturday night show National’s Tama Potaka had 6629 votes, compared to Labour’s Georgie Dansey with 4344, a margin of 2285.
ACT candidate James McDowall received 1462 votes.
The incumbent, Dr Gaurav Sharma, received 1156 votes. Sharma said the result showed that “there’s definitely an antigovernment sentiment”.
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In regard to the cost of the by-election, he said: “Democracy comes at a cost.”
The vote in the bellwether seat followed Sharma’s resignation from Parliament.
Potaka gathered with supporters in the central Hamilton Novotel Tainui hotel on Saturday night. As the result became clear, National leader Christopher Luxon told him it was “an encouraging end to the year and a great start to 2023”.
Luxon arrived to chants of “Tama, Tama, Tama”.
Luxon said the people of Hamilton West had sent a message to the Labour Government.
“I thank the people of Hamilton West for their support and for putting their trust in National.
“It reflects the strong campaign that our candidate Tama Potaka has run, talking about the things that matter to the people of Hamilton West.
“Voters have sent a message to Labour that the country is heading in the wrong direction, and they need a National Government to turn it around and get things done,” Luxon said.
“Everyday Kiwis are concerned about an economy going backwards, not feeling safe in their own homes or businesses, or being able to access health services – not ideological pet projects like Three Waters, the TVNZ-RNZ merger or hate speech legislation.
“New Zealanders will do better under National and today’s win in Hamilton West is a great platform for National to build on through 2023 until the election.
“I welcome Tama Potaka to the National caucus and know he will work hard to represent Hamilton West in our team and in Parliament,” he said.
In keeping with a long-standing Hamilton West tradition, Dansey visited Potaka at the Novotel and conceded as the vote became more definitive.
Sharma also visited late on Saturday night to concede.
Earlier, when Dansey arrived to cheering Labour supporters at Community Waikato’s offices in Hamilton, she acknowledged things were not looking too good, nor was she surprised.
She said the results weren’t what Labour wanted but weren’t unexpected given polling putting National in front.
However, she told supporters she was “super proud of us and what we’ve achieved”.
The campaign had started in difficult circumstances.
She thanked Labour supporters and particularly Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for their support.
“Getting texts from the PM has got me through some hard times.”
She confirmed she would be Labour’s candidate at the general election.
On whether losing a bellwether seat was a sign of the times for Labour next year, she quoted former Prime Minister Helen Clark.
“[She] has said herself that by-elections are crazy beasts.”
1 NEWS
“Tama’s done an exceptionally good job,” National leader Christopher Luxon told reporters after his party claimed a big win in the Hamilton West by-election.
The by-election, by the numbers
The preliminary results are based on the 14,392 ordinary votes counted on election night.
About 795 special declaration votes are still to be counted. That includes about 57 overseas votes and about 738 special votes taken within the electorate.
According to the Electoral Commission, voter turnout for the by-election is estimated to be 31.4% of the 48,358 voters enroled prior to election day.
An estimated 68.1% of votes were cast in advance, excluding special votes.
Previous by-elections have had higher turnout.
The Tauranga by-election in June saw a 40.5% turnout. The Northcote by-election in 2018 had a 43.9% turnout.
A by-election in Mt Roskill in 2016 had 38.5% voter turnout too.
However, a Mt Albert by-election in 2017 did have lower voter turnout than Hamilton West. Just 30.0% of voters participated in that by-election.
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