Election 2023: No surprises as final votes banked for Rangitīkei, Whanganui and Te Tai Hauāuru

Debbie Ngarewa-Packer finished far ahead of her nearest rival, Labour's Soraya Peke-Mason. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Final vote counts in the Rangitīkei, Whanganui and Te Tai Hauāuru electorates have turned up no surprises a month after the general election.

In Rangitīkei, National’s Suze Redmayne more than doubled the votes of her nearest rival, Labour’s Zulfiqar Butt.

Redmayne racked up 18,945 to Butt’s 9,160.

It was a similar story for party votes, with National outstripping Labour by 41.08 per cent to 21.71 per cent.

Act candidate Andrew Hoggard, who will enter Parliament on the list, picked up 5914 candidate votes, and his party claimed 5655.

Te Tai Hauāuru winner, Te Pāti Māori’s Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, finished on 16,288 votes - far ahead of Labour candidate Soraya Peke-Mason’s 7126.

However, Labour pulled in 40.91 per cent of the party vote in that electorate to Te Pāti Māori’s 35.05 per cent.

Peke Mason, formerly a Labour list MP, is not returning to Parliament.

Whanganui’s new MP, National’s Carl Bates, boosted his final victory margin to 5512 over Labour’s Steph Lewis - 18,484 to 12,972.

National was the preferred party in Whanganui as well, getting 36.8 per cent of the vote to Labour’s 27.79 per cent.

New Zealand First’s William Arnold finished on 3139 votes and his party got 4494, enough for third in both the electorate and party vote categories.

Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.