Election 2023: Far North voters now know who they can vote for with candidates announced

We now know who we can vote for in October’s general election, with all candidates now named.

It’s official, the race for the hearts and minds of Far North voters is underway with the final list of candidates standing in the Northand and Te Tai Tokerau electorates released.

With the 2023 general election coming up October 14, parties had until noon last Friday to nominate their candidates, and the final list was released on Saturday.

In Northland, nine candidates have put their hats into the ring seeking election, while in Te Tai Tokerau five candidates have been nominated.

Candidates confirmed for the Northland electorate are Mark Cameron (Act); Michael Feyen (NZ Loyal); Mike Finlayson (Northland Party); Shane Jones (NZ First); Matt King (Democracy NZ); Jeffrey Lye (Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party); Grant McCallum (National); Reina Penney (Greens) and incumbent Willow-Jean Prime (Labour).

The candidates in Te Tai Tokerau are incumbent Kelvin Davis (Labour); Make Herbert (Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis); Mariameno Kapa-Kingi (Te Pāti Māori); Hūhana Lyndon (Greens) and Paturiri Toautu (Independent).

The final candidates list means everybody will know who is standing in their electorate so they can decide on their preferred candidate, and that the election campaign is in full swing.

And while your electorate candidate vote is important, it’s the party vote that determines how many seats each party gets in Parliament, based on the percentage of the party vote it gets.

Advance voting starts on October 2, with the polls closing at physical voting booths at 7pm on October 14, with the provisional results expected to start coming through from 7pm that night. All voting places will be open from 9am to 7pm and there are more than 130,000 eligible voters in the Northland region who will vote in the three electorates.

In the 2020 general election all three Northland electorates - Northland, Whangārei and Te Tai Tokerau - were won by Labour as a red wave swept the party into power without the need for a coalition partner.

Last election, in Whangārei, incumbent National Party MP Dr Shane Reti (17,392 votes) lost the seat to Labour’s Emily Henderson (17823). In the Northland electorate, incumbent National MP Matt King (16,903) lost to Labour’s Willow-Jean Prime (17,066 votes).

In 2020 Labour’s Kelvin Davis retained the Te Tai Tokerau seat with 14,932 votes, more than double the 6768 votes Mariameno Kapa-Kingi got for Te Pāti Māori.

To help here is some information about the election and the voting process.

■ Under MMP, you get two votes.

One is for a party (party vote) and the other for a person standing in your electorate (electorate vote).

Your electorate vote should go to the person you most want to represent you in Parliament. Your party vote should go to the party you want to have the most seats in Parliament.

■ Enrolling to vote is compulsory, although voting is not. If you’re eligible to enrol to vote, and you live in New Zealand, then you must do so. If you’re eligible to enrol to vote, but you do not live in New Zealand, then it’s your choice whether you enrol or not.

■ You can enrol on election day (unless you are overseas), You can enrol when you go to vote at any voting place in New Zealand – but if you enrol early, then voting will be faster. If you’re overseas you must be enrolled by midnight, October 13, to be eligible to vote.

Key election dates:

■ September 27 - Overseas voting starts; telephone dictation voting opens

■ October 2 - Advance voting starts

■ October 13 - Advance voting ends; regulated period ends. All election advertising must end. Signs must be taken down by midnight.

■ October 14 - Election day. Voting places open from 9am to 7pm

Election night. Preliminary election results released progressively from 7pm on www.electionresults.govt.nz

■ November 3 - Official results for the 2023 general election declared.