Labour leads secured in Hawke's Bay electorates, official election results show

Labour MP for Tukituki Ann Lorck, pictured with her mother Viv, says she is thrilled with the official results and widened vote margin. Photo / File

Labour's stronghold on all four electorates in Hawke's Bay has just been tightened after the release of the 2020 general election official results.

Winning Tukituki Labour candidate Anna Lorck extended her lead on ousted National MP Lawrence Yule with a new margin of 1590 votes – twice the initial 772 margin announced on election night.

Lorck said she was absolutely thrilled with the result.

"It's great. The work that was done in our Tukituki campaign with our volunteer and support base in one, getting out to vote, and two, the special votes where people were able to enrol and vote at the same time was significant.

"We've had a very busy start to the three weeks."

The gap between Napier candidates Labour incumbent Stuart Nash and National's newcomer Katie Nimon also widened, to 5856 votes.

Wairarapa electorate, which saw the highest voter turnout across the four electorates at 86 per cent, further cemented Labour MP Kieran McAnulty's win over National's Mike Butterick.

McAnulty's lead increased from 5411 to 6545 votes.

Ikaroa-Rāwhiti, which had the lowest voter turnout across the four electorates at 67.1 per cent, saw Meka Whaitiri triumph over Heather Te Au Skipworth with a new margin of 6045 votes.

Ikaroa-Rāwhiti Green Party candidate Dr Elizabeth Kerekere also made it into Parliament as a list MP.

The 2020 general election official results saw the Labour Party end with a total of 65 seats compared to 64 on election night.

National lost two seats, ending with 33.

Act New Zealand and the Green Party seats remained unchanged with 10 seats each, with the Māori Party gaining an extra seat making for a total of two.

Labour's lead has also proven fruitful for Hawke's Bay with both Nash and Whaitiri being sworn in as Cabinet Ministers on Friday – holding the Economic and Regional Development, Forestry, Small Business and Tourism, and Customs, Veterans, and Associate Minister of Agriculture (Animal Welfare) and Statistics portfolios.

McAnulty was named the chief government whip.

A total of 2,919,086 votes were cast, with special votes making up 17 per cent of these with 504,625 votes.

The special votes were not enough to change the result of the two referendums, with the majority of Kiwis in support of the End of Life Choice Act 2019 coming into effect and the majority against the proposed Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill.