National's Catherine Wedd and supporters celebrate on election night. Photo / Paul Taylor
National's Catherine Wedd and supporters celebrate on election night. Photo / Paul Taylor
The Tukituki electorate has flipped to its traditional blue in a big way, with National’s Catherine Wedd getting close to twice the votes of incumbent Labour MP Anna Lorck.
With 100 per cent of the votes counted on Sunday morning, and just the specials to come, Wedd led Lorck 19,026 to 10,048, a margin of close to 9000.
National claimed 42.36 per cent of the party vote in the electorate and Labour 25.01 per cent, with Act also polling relatively high.
It was always going to be a tough race for Lorck to win, given the seat’s unexpected flip to red in 2020, but she was never in it on Saturday night.
Labour's Anna Lorck surrounded by her family in the Tukituki electorate on election night. Photo / Paul Taylor
The slim hope for Lorck was that like her Napier counterpart, Catherine Wedd was already a safe bet for a seat in Parliament, coming in at number 23 on the National Party list.
Lorck is number 40 on Labour’s list, meaning she won’t be returned to Parliament on the party vote.
But voters in Tukituki didn’t choose the option of having two representatives as Labour’s support crashed across the country.
Lorck previously snatched the seat in 2020 from former Mayor of Hastings Lawrence Yule. She gained 19,132 votes (46.3 per cent) and won by a margin of 1590.
Labour's Anna Lorck and National's Catherine Wedd are vying for the Tukituki electorate. Photo / NZME
A major election promise from Lorck had been around $1.1 billion from Labour to build a new Hospital for Hawke’s Bay.
She had also promised to build a four-lane highway between Napier and Hastings.
National's Tukituki candidate Catherine Wedd on election night. Photo / Paul Taylor
Of the minor parties, Act’s Rob Douglas had expressed early confidence in the campaign that he could gain a place in Parliament, given he was placed number 16 on the Act Party list.
But polls in recent weeks had shown Act had hit its peak early, and preliminary results indicated that Act would get 12 seats in Parliament, meaning Douglas won’t receive a seat.
Tukituki - Full results:
DOUGLAS, Rob (ACT) 1678
HULMAN, Rob (NZ Loyal) 847
LORCK, Anna (Labour) 10048
MANNING, Romana (Marnz) (Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party) 487
