Venkat Raman
Auckland, November 6, 2020
Labour gets 65 seats; National down to 33; Maori Party has two seats
Priyanca Radhakrishnan, Minister for Inclusion, Diversity and Ethnic Communities, Minister for Diversity, Inclusion and Ethnic Communities, Minister for Youth, Minister of Community and Voluntary Sector and Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment is now elected Member of Parliament from Maungakiekie (INL Photo)
Another electoral history was made today as India-born Priyanca Radhakrishnan was declared winner of the Maungakiekie seat after all the special votes were counted.
An Electoral Commission Press Release said that in the final result, she received 16,232 votes, obtaining a majority of 635 votes over her National Party rival Denise Lee.
Winners and Losers
Ms Lee is now out of Parliament.
There are two other upsets for National Party. Its candidate Matt King has lost the Northland seat to Labour Party’s Willow-Jean Prime with a majority of 163 votes. In Whangarei, National Party candidate Shane Reti has been defeated by Labour Party candidate Emily Henderson. All other electorate candidates leading on election night have been confirmed as winning their seats.
Chief Electoral Officer Alicia Wright said that the number of seats in the 53rd Parliament will be 120.
“The Labour Party has 65 seats compared to 64 on election night. The National Party has 33 seats compared to 35; the Māori Party has two seats; ACT and Green Party remain unchanged with 10 seats each,” she said.
National Party’s Gerry Brownlee, who lost his Ilam seat to Labour Party’s Sarah Pallett has announced his resignation from the post of Deputy Leader. He was the Campaign Manager for the Party during the general election.
Key statistics
The total number of votes cast was 2,919,086. The number of special votes was 504,625, 17% of total votes (same as 2017). 68% of votes were cast in advance (2017: 47%). 82.2% of people who were enrolled voted (2017:79.8%). This is the highest turnout since 1999 (84.8%). The final enrolment rate was 94.1% (2017 – 92.4%), the highest since 2008 (95.3%).
Ms Wright said that the official results of the general election held on October 17, 2020 have been determined in accordance with the requirements of electoral legislation.
“The scrutiny of the rolls has been completed and the master roll for each electorate has been prepared. All votes counted on election night have been counted a second time and balanced, and special votes have been checked for eligibility before being counted. This has been done in the presence of Justices of the Peace and any scrutineers appointed by candidates. Comprehensive audit checks have also been completed at the national level to ensure the results are accurate.
The results are subject to any applications for judicial recounts.
Matt King of the National Party has said that he will apply for a judicial recount since his Labour Party rival Willow-Jean Prime with a slim majority of 163 votes.
Details of the official results can be accessed at www.electionresults.govt.nz
Overall results – 2020 General Election
| Total votes cast 2,919,086* | |||||
| Party | Party votes | % of votes | Electorate seats | List seats | Total seats |
| Labour Party | 1,443,546 | 50.0 | 46 | 19 | 65 |
| National Party | 738,275 | 25.6 | 23 | 10 | 33 |
| Green Party | 226,754 | 7.9 | 1 | 9 | 10 |
| ACT New Zealand | 219,030 | 7.6 | 1 | 9 | 10 |
| Māori Party | 33,632 | 1.2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| New Zealand First Party | 75,021 | 2.6 | – | – | – |
| The Opportunities Party (TOP) | 43,449 | 1.5 | – | – | – |
| New Conservative | 42,615 | 1.5 | – | – | – |
| Advance NZ | 28,434 | 1.0 | – | – | – |
| Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party | 13,329 | 0.5 | – | – | – |
| ONE Party | 8,121 | 0.3 | – | – | – |
| Vision New Zealand | 4,236 | 0.1 | – | – | – |
| NZ Outdoors Party | 3,256 | 0.1 | – | – | – |
| TEA Party | 2,415 | 0.1 | – | – | – |
| Sustainable New Zealand Party | 1,880 | 0.1 | – | – | – |
| Social Credit | 1,520 | 0.1 | – | – | – |
| HeartlandNZ | 914 | 0.0 | – | – | – |
| Total valid votes | 2,886,427 | 72 | 48 | 120 | |
*Includes 21,378 party informal votes and 11,281 disallowed votes. The results are calculated using the Sainte-Laguë formula.
Turnout and special votes
The turnout of voters as a percentage of enrolled voters was 82.2%.
Turnout in the Māori electorates was 69.1% (2017 – 66.7%), the highest since 1999 (70.65%). Turnout for each electorate is shown in Attachment B.
Special votes cast totalled 504,625, or 17% of total votes cast, including 62,787 overseas votes.
Enrolment
94.1% of estimated eligible voters were enrolled, up from 92.4% in 2017, and the highest enrolment rate since 2008 (95.3%). 80.7% of 18- to 29-year-olds were enrolled compared with 75.5% in 2017.
For the first time, people could enrol on election day. Approximately 80,000 people enrolled or updated their details on election day.
Declaration and judicial recounts
The official results were declared by Gazette Notice today. Any applications for a judicial recount must be filed with a District Court no later than Wednesday, November 11, 2020.
Next steps
If there are no applications for recounts, on Thursday, November 12, 2020, the Electoral Commission will return the writ to the Clerk of the House of Representatives, allocate list seats in the presence of party scrutineers and declare by Gazette Notice the election of list members of Parliament.
If there are applications for judicial recounts, the return of the writ and the election of list members will be delayed until any recounts are complete.
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