High fives for Tolley

AND STILL OUR MP: Anne Tolley celebrates with family, friends and supporters after winning a fifth term as the Member of Parliament for the East Coast electorate. The National MP’s majority was reduced significantly from 2014 but she still finished over 4500 ahead of Labour’s Kiri Allan with special votes still to be counted. Picture by Liam Clayton

EAST Coast MP Anne Tolley has claimed a fifth term by 4653 votes after an exciting and unpredictable election, where the make-up of the Government remains uncertain.

Early East Coast voting returns provided exciting viewing on Saturday, with the lead alternating between the major candidates.

It was after 10pm when it became clear National’s Mrs Tolley was going to win.

Her Labour opponents, however, have not given up hope of forming a Government, with coalition negotiations about to start.

East Coast Labour candidate Kiri Allan has become a new MP through the list.

Labour’s Meka Whaitiri retained Maori electorate Ikaroa-Rawhiti and helped in one of the surprises of election night, the ejection from Parliament of the Maori Party.

Green Party East Coast candidate Gareth Hughes returns to Parliament. At No. 5 on his party’s list, 5.9 percent of the party vote was sufficient to return him.

Counting Mr Hughes, who is from Gisborne, this region has four MPs in the House.

HappyMrs Tolley was tired but happy when she met the Herald by chance on Sunday morning. She is attending the usual Monday Cabinet meeting today and the National caucus will farewell departing MPs tomorrow.

Although Labour leader Jacinda Ardern told national media she was hoping for a better result — more commensurate with the party’s early polling in the election — 35.8 percent of the party vote was sufficient for Ms Allan to become an MP.

Twenty-eight percent of the party vote will send her to Parliament, at 21 on Labour’s list.

She was very proud of her election team and a campaign that reduced a Cabinet Minister’s majority of 7934 almost by half from 2014.

Ms Allan said there were still hundreds of thousands of special votes to be counted and Labour could pick up an extra seat.

The Electoral Commission is predicting over 384,000 specials — 15 percent of total votes.

Asked to comment on the make-up of the Government, Ms Allan said she would wait with “bated breath”.

Meanwhile, she was going to “hug my beautiful baby” — Ms Allan’s partner gave birth to a girl last month.

Ms Whaitiri said she was pleased with her majority of 3796 over Marama Fox of the Maori Party.

Blunt in defeatMrs Fox was blunt in the wake of her defeat.

She described Ms Whaitiri as someone “who will sit in opposition” while the Maori Party’s dumping from Parliament at the hands of Labour was like “going back like a beaten wife to the abuser”.

Ms Whaitiri said she was not bothered by those comments. They were more of a slight on voters and would upset them.

“She is going to be an non-entity,”

Ms Whaitiri described Mrs Fox as a “show pony”. Voters liked MPs “‘who do the hard work”, she said,

Ms Whaitiri said it was significant that Labour had won the party vote in Ikaroa-Rawhiti by 12,112 votes to 2292.

Defeated Maori Party leader Te Ururoa Flavell had lost the party vote in Waiariki by a similar margin.

Mrs Whaitiri said the Maori Party’s so-called ‘‘independent voice for Maori” had achieved little in the face of unemployment, health and housing issues while suicide remained an ongoing concern.

Maori had returned to Labour, she said.

Labour, for the first time since Tariana Turia resigned from Labour to form the Maori Party in 2004, holds all of the Maori seats.

Ms Whaitiri said Labour could absolutely form a government.

It was up to Ms Ardern and deputy leader Kelvin Davis to negotiate.

“We have faith in them.”