Incumbent Taupō MP Louise Upston has won the seat for the seventh time, with a margin of more than 13,000 votes over Labour’s Chris Flatt.
On current projections, Flatt will also enter Parliament on the Labour Party list.
Upston also faced Celine Kearney from the Green Party, Sam Plummer from the Opportunity Party, Gordon Wilson from New Zealand Loyal and Independent candidate Itania Nikolao.
She has held the seat since 2008, when she ousted Labour’s Mark Burton.
Flatt stood for the seat for the first time.
Upston spent election day with her Cambridge-based volunteers, before returning to Taupō to spend the evening with her family and Taupō-based supporters.
As the votes were counted on Saturday, Upston showed a clear majority throughout the night. But she would not be drawn into making a victory call until after 11pm.
She paid several tributes to her support base, both familial and political, saying: “I want to make sure Christopher Luxon can lead this country for the next three years”.
Those present at the party include her stepmother, two of her siblings and one of her nieces, who had travelled with her partner and children from Ōtorohanga to show their support.
Upston said having her family here on the night was “very deliberate”.
Her stepmother, Kirsty McGill, came into Upston’s life after her mother died.
McGill said she always knew Upston would pursue a career in politics.
After 18 years in Parliament, McGill said she was proud of her stepdaughter, who called her “mum”.
Taupō Mayor John Funnell and Taupō ward councillor Nicola de Latour, both National Party members, dropped in to see Upston and her team several times throughout the night.
There were also supporters from Cambridge at the event, who presented her with a bouquet of flowers.
Upston said she would go back to Cambridge to celebrate.
Among the supporters at her party was also Garth Martin, 25, a member of National’s Taupō branch.
He’s worked alongside Upston throughout this term and represented her when she couldn’t make an event.
Martin said his future goal was to be leader of the National Party.
Labour’s candidate could become list MP
Flatt, who spent the evening with his supporters at the Tokoroa Sport and Events Centre, told Local Democracy Reporting that winning a seat off an 18-year-veteran was never going to be easy.
“We always knew it was a tough battle because there was no Act or New Zealand [First] candidate in Taupō, and that’s very rare,” Flatt said.
With only one right-wing candidate, Flatt said there was no one else to split the right-wing vote.
While reluctant to call the results during the night, he eventually contacted Upston to concede to her at about 11pm.
He said the result isn’t quite what he wanted, but he was proud of Labour re-establishing itself in Taupō, Te Tai Hauāuru and Waiariki.
“There was a lot of discussion about potentially [sic] the Greens picking up party votes in the Māori electorates.”
He was thankful and proud of his team and the volunteers from across the Taupō electorate.
He said he was having kai and a great time watching the election from Tokoroa.
“We used a great local Tokoroa caterer, the Bakehouse Cafe and a couple of other fast food outlets.
”We like to put money back into the local community."
He said there was a “good strong Labour party vote” in the electorate, which meant, that at number 20 on the party list, he believed he had a decent chance of entering Parliament as a list MP.
“It’s looking like a possibility,” he said.
TAUPŌ
Upston ahead by 13,052 votes
100.0% counted
Candidate vote
UPSTON, Louise Claire 61.1% 23,228
FLATT, Chris 26.8% 10,176
KEARNEY, Celine 5.9% 2241
Party vote
National 36.2% 13,927
Labour 22.4% 8600
Act 16.9% 6483
