Split votes boosted candidates

Todd McLay , MP for Rotorua.

While National Party voters backed their candidate Todd McClay to retain the Rotorua MP seat, he also had the support from voters of the ACT New Zealand Party, United Future, Conservative and Ban 1080 Party.

Figures of split votes for the region from last month's general election have been released by the Electoral Commission.

They show the number of those choosing a different affiliated electoral candidate from their party vote.

There were 34,000 party votes counted in the Rotorua electorate, with 17,660 (52 per cent) going to National.

When it came to the candidate vote, National's Mr McClay won the support of nearly 90 per cent of National voters. But he also enjoyed the backing of 52 per cent (74 votes) of ACT New Zealand voters, 46 per cent (47 votes) from Ban 1080 and 61 per cent (44 votes) of Conservative voters.

His closest rival was Labour Party candidate and former television presenter Tamati Coffey. While heavily supported by his own party voters at 88 per cent, he also received the tick from 74 per cent (1693 votes) of those who voted for the Green Party, 68 per cent of Internet Mana voters (184 votes), 50 per cent (243) of those that ticked Maori Party and 16 votes from New Zealand Independent backers.

In the Waiariki electorate 22,398 party votes were counted. Incumbent MP Te Ururoa Flavell received just over 4245 votes from his Maori Party supporters but he also had 817 votes (73 per cent) from National voters and 768 votes (43 per cent) from Green Party voters.

Runner-up Rawiri Waititi was backed by 55 per cent of those who voted for the Labour Party with 4297 votes.

Just over 25 per cent of Labour voters chose Te Ururoa Flavell and 20 per cent picked Internet Mana candidate Annette Sykes.

Detailed statistics are available at www.electionresults.govt.nz/electionresults_2014/.

At a glance
• Of the 142 Rotorua voters who voted for the ACT Party, only 28 per cent of them voted for ACT candidate Lyall Russell. Another 52 per cent went for Mr McClay.
• Similarly, only 24 per cent of Conservative Party voters supported its candidate Michael Davidson while 61 per cent chose Mr McClay.
• Mr Coffey got the support of 6.4 per cent of National Party voters while Mr McClay got 4.82 of the Labour Party vote.