Gia Garrick
Auckland, June 10, 2018
National’s Dan Bidois has won the Northcote by-election by a margin of more than 1300 votes over Labour candidate Shanan Halbert.
With 100% of the vote counted, Mr Bidois is on 10,147 votes, and Shanan Halbert 8785.
The Northcote seat was vacated when long-time National MP Jonathan Coleman resigned from Parliament to head Acurity Health Group, a private healthcare company.
He did so just six months after being re-elected to the role.
Largest Single Party
Mr Bidois’ win means National will remain the largest singular party in Parliament, with 56 seats, making themselves a formidable opposition for the remaining two and a half years of the term.
Mr Bidois arrived at the National by-election night party, having already received a concession call from Labour candidate, Mr Halbert.
“Well, the people of Northcote have spoken and they have said loud and clear that they want a fighter for Northcote and I’m proud to say that I’ve been a fighter all my life and now I get the opportunity to be a fighter for the people of Northcote.”
Improvement for Labour
This evening’s result has the gap between the two top candidates at 1362 votes, which is a nearly 5000 vote improvement on Mr Halbert’s result against Dr Coleman at the 2017 General Election. Mr Coleman had polled 19,072 votes while, Mr Halbert received 12,862 votes, leaving a margin of 6210 votes.
However, accounting for a lower voter turnout, National pulled in around the same percentage of the votes as it did at the last election – 52 percent.
Many Green Party voters opted for Labour this time around, bolstering Mr Halbert’s vote.
The Green Party’s Rebekah Juang and the ACT Party’s Stephen Berry came in at 579 and 157 votes respectively.
Internal polls heading in to the by-election showed very different stories, with Labour’s targeted polls indicating a two point gap between the candidates.
National’s internal polling had the gap much wider, at eight points, and was much closer to the final result.
Gia Garrick is a Political Reporter at Radio New Zealand. Indian Newslink has published the above Report and Picture under a Special Agreement with www.rnz.co.nz
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Photo Caption:
Dan Bidois with his mother Leah Bidois celebrating his victory last night.
(Photo for RNZ by Gia Garrick)
