Northland has strong parliamentary caucus

NZ First Leader Winston Peters will be the most senior member of the six-strong Northland caucus of MPs in the next parliament.

Northland will have a powerful voice in the next parliament - whoever forms the government - with six MPs elected from the region and two more with strong links to the region.

The MPs will make a large 'Northland caucus' in the 52nd New Zealand Parliament and the region may yet get another one once special votes are counted.

Election night saw three MPs voted in from Northland's three electorates - Shane Reti, National, in Whangarei; Matt King, National, in Northland and Kelvin Davis, in Te Tai Tokerau.

Four others have got in because of their spots on their party's list.

Willow-Jean Prime, who stood for Labour in the Northland electorate, is at number 17 on the Labour party list so will become an MP.

New Zealand First has three list MPs with strong Northland links after getting 7.5 per cent of the vote, entitling it to nine list MPs in total.

Party Leader Winston Peters was unsuccessful in retaining the Northland seat, but will still get in due to his number one ranking on the NZ First Party list.

As well, Shane Jones, who came second in Whangarei behind Dr Reti, becomes an MP again - he was previously a list MP for Labour - due to his number eight spot on the party list.

Plus, Peeni Henare, who is from the Bay of Islands, was voted in as Labour's candidate in the Tamaki Makaurau electorate.

Jenny Marcroft, who has strong connections to the small Hokianga settlement of Utakura, where her father was born, is at No 9 on the NZ party list so also becomes a list MP.

And the party may yet get another MP from Northland. There are more than 380,000 special votes still to be counted - about 15 per cent of the total votes cast - and if NZ First lifts its share of the vote to 8.5 per cent, Pita Paraone will return as a list MP.

NZ First would need to get up to 10 per cent of the party vote to get Ria Bond, who now lives in Invercargill, but originally from Motatau, south-east of Kawakawa, in at No12 on the list.

And while the MPs are from different parties, they will work together on Northland issues.