Resignations and political manoeuvring create interest around Ikaroa-Rāwhiti and East Coast

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

East Coast and Ikaroa-Rawhiti will both be key electorates to watch on election night.

That is the unsurprising call from political commentators at The Spinoff, the New Zealand online pop culture, politics and social issues magazine.

There are now six candidates seeking the East Coast electorate seat which will not have a sitting MP on election night.

Labour List MP and 2017-2020 Waiariki MP Tāmati Coffey has stepped into the spot left by the resignation of troubled Cabinet Minister Kiri Allan, while National’s Dana Kirkpatrick will try to ensure Labour’s reign in East Coast is for one term only.

Mr Coffey intended retiring from Parliament in October.

The Spinoff says that after the Labour “tide of 2020 recedes, it promises to be a tight race with National candidate Dana Kirkpatrick.”

Whakatane charted accountant Michael Howe is standing for ACT, while unsuccessful Gisborne District Council candidate Jordan Walker has been selected to represent the Green Party.

The other two candidates in East Coast are Chris Robinson, standing for DemocracyNZ, and Vision New Zealand’s Leighton Packer who also ran for council last year.

There have also been headline-making shocks and political manoeuvring in Ikaroa-Rawhiti with the defection in May this year of  Minister outside Cabinet Meka Whaitiri to Te Pāti Māori.

The original 2023 Te Pāti Māori candidate Heather Te Au-Skipworth, who lost heavily to Ms Whaitiri in 2020, withdrew from the seat to allow Ms Whaitiri to stand.

Labour has once lost the seat to New Zealand First, but never to Te Pāti Māori and needed to move quickly to find a strong candidate.

According to The Spinoff, Labour has come up with a “real contender in the form of Cushla Tangaere-Manuel, whose credentials include having been chief executive of Ngāti Porou East Coast Rugby Union”.

Ms Tangaere-Manuel does not appear on the Labour list which is a ploy which worked for Labour in 2017 when they won all seven Māori electorates and unexpectedly drove Te Pāti Māori out of Parliament.

Candidate nominations close on September 15.

Voting begins for overseas Kiwis on September 27 and advanced voting for resident New Zealanders from October 2.

Election day is October 14.