Labour leader Jacinda Ardern has been rewarded by voters with a landslide win — delivering her power in her own right, and an absolute drubbing to the National Party.
The party vote in the South was a major contributing factor in the Labour Party's resounding win on Saturday nght.
Labour won the party vote in every single South Island electorate, which is the first time this had happened since the MMP voting system was adopted for the 1996 GeneralElection.
Here is a break down of the party vote numbers:
Nelson: Labour 20,564 - National 8418 West Coast Tasman: Labour 17,859 - National 9974 Kaikoura: Labour 16,561 - National 11,538 Waimakariri: Labour 20,222 - National 11,720 Christchurch East: Labour 20,302 - National 5779 Ilam: Labour 15,875 - National 11,011 Christchurch Central: Labour 17,467 - National 6648 Banks Peninsula: Labour 21,302 - National 9166 Selwyn: Labour 15,293 - National 12,908 Wigram: Labour 17,653 - National 7033 Rangitata: Labour 18,531 - National 12,244 Waitaki: Labour 17,058 - National 12,330 Dunedin: Labour 21,625 - Green 7001 - National 5514 Taieri: Labour 23,210 - National 8505 Southland: Labour 13,359 - National 12,777 Invercargill: Labour 17,050 - National 10,873 Te Tai Tonga: Labour 13,056 - Green 2597 Maori 1838
The closest the National Party came to winning the party vote in the south was in the Southland electorate with a margin of 582 votes.
Labour claimed 38.5 per cent of the party vote while National had 36.8 per cent.
The South Island electorates where the Labour Party had its most emphatic wins was in the Christchurch East (59.7 per cent of the vote) and Taieri electorates (58.8 per cent of the vote).
The National Party trailed by 14,705 votes in the Taieri electorate while it was 16,111 votes behind Labour in the Dunedin electorate.
The Greens Party had a historic gain in the Dunedin electorate (17.9%) where it overtook National (14.1 per cent) for the first time since MMP began, to claim second place in the party vote behind Labour (55.2 per cent).
While the Dunedin electorate is new this year, in the previous Dunedin North electorate the National Party had never placed below second in the party vote.
Last night Taieri Green candidate Scott Willis said he was "chuffed" with the result that they were outstripping the party vote in Dunedin and Taieri compared to the last election.
"We're looking like a really strong result from the South."
Nationwide, the only electorates where National lead the party vote were Taranaki-King Country, Waikato, Epsom and Tāmaki.
Labour even lead the party vote in Judith Collins' own electorate of Papakura by a margin of 434 votes.
Despite not leading in the party vote, the National Party still managed to win the Invercargill, Southland, Waitaki, Selwyn, Kaikōura and Waimakariri electorate seats in the South Island.
Last night new Taieri electorate MP Ingrid Leary said that even though the area was "hardcore Labour" they still faced the challenges of a new candidate and the electorate name and boundary change.
Ingrid Leary. Photo / Supplied
Dunedin National Party list MP Michael Woodhouse said yesterday he was sad for the party as they would not have the same strength of representation in Parliament.
Dunedin MP David Clark said it was very encouraging and it was a privilege to have the trust of the people in his electorate.
National's Taieri candidate Liam Kernaghan said he was dedicated to the South and he would be looking to spend the next three years here and have "a good crack at it again".
