Election 2014: Blue tide sweeps Northland

Shane Reti won the Whangarei electorate with 18,747 votes. Photo / John Stone

The blue tide that has ruled over Northland for the past 40 years swept over the region again with National Party retaining the Whangarei and Northland seats, but their MPs overall majorities were down on election night.

And in the hotly-contested Te Tai Tokerau electorate, Labour's Kelvin Davis finally wrestled the seat from Mana Movement leader Hone Harawira at the fourth attempt.

Political newcomer Shane Reti - standing for National in Whangarei after five-term MP Phil Heatley stood down this election - won the Whangarei electorate with 18,747 votes, a majority of 12,379 over second place getter Labour's Kelly Ellis.

At the 2011 general election, National MP Phil Heatley won the Whangarei electorate with 20,049 votes, a majority of 12,447 over Labour candidate Pat Newman.

Dr Reti said he was humbled, but honoured, that the people of Whangarei had given him the mandate to represent them as part of the next National Government.

He said his first priorities as an MP would be "jobs, jobs, jobs" and he would push for National's Roads of National Significance (RONs) project - that has seen consents State Highway 1 to be widened from Puhoi to Warkworth and later Wellsford - extended.

"I want to get the four laning of SH1 all the way to Whangarei. That will also help create jobs, while I will work hard on economic development for Whangarei and Northland," Dr Reti said.

First-time candidate Ms Ellis said she had learned a lot from the campaign and congratulated Dr Reti on his win. "I hope he does a good job representing the good people of Whangarei in Wellington. Whangarei has suffered the last six years and I'm worried about what it's going to be like after the next three," she said.

In the Northland electorate, National candidate Mike Sabin retained his seat for a second term in Parliament, earning 16,827 votes for an election night majority of 8,785 over Labour candidate Willow-Jean Prime.

In the 2011 general election, Mr Sabin gained 18,188 votes to win the Northland seat with a majority of 11,362 from Labour candidate Lynette Stewart.

Te Tai Tokerau was tipped to be one of the tightest races in the country with Mr Harawira and Mr Davis going head-to-head for the fourth time, with Mr Harawira coming out on top the previous three times. But it was fourth time lucky for Mr Davis who took the seat with 8,442 votes, a majority of 1,119 over Mr Harawira.

"Now it's time for a new beginning for Te Tai Tokerau, to focus on the needs of the people, to make people's lives better up here," Mr Davis said after his win.

When asked why he thought he had won, he said it was because of the Mana Movement aligning with Kim Dotcom and the Internet Party.

"It totally worked against them. I couldn't believe Hone would do it. I thought from the outset 'this is going to work in my favour'. It was his Achilles heel."

Mr Harawira has yet to concede defeat with special votes still to be counted.

In 2001 Mr Harawira won the Te Tai Tokerau seat with 8,121 votes, a majority of 1,165 over Mr Davis.

The election saw Whangarei get a second MP with NZ First candidate Pita Paraone getting in through his No 8 ranking on the NZ First party list. Mr Paraone was a New Zealand First list MP from 2002 to 2008 when he lived at Pakuranga, Auckland.