The special votes will be needed to confirm Nelson’s Member of Parliament with the results of Saturday’s General Election too close to call, while West Coast Tasman is back in blue.
Just a small margin separated its front-runners on Saturday night, once 100 per cent of votes were counted.
National’s Blair Cameron finished the night with a slim 54-vote lead over Labour’s Rachel Boyack, and their election chances will pend until 3 November, when the special vote results are finalised.
Special votes are made by those who voted outside their electorate, voted overseas, were on the unpublished roll, or if they enrolled close to, or on, Election Day.
The Electoral Commission says it is unable to provide a regional breakdown of special votes before 3 November.
In the 2020 General Election, 5624 special votes were cast for Nelson with 2725 special votes added to winner Rachel Boyack’s total.
Blair, who celebrated getting the most votes on election night with his supporters at the local National Party headquarters, says he felt “excited and optimistic” ahead of the final results.
“Obviously a very close result, so we won’t know the final outcome for another few weeks yet, but feeling really excited and optimistic that the results will reflect the results on election night.”
Blair says he had been at Parliament on Monday to meet with the new National Party caucus but says it was unlikely he would be a List MP if he was unsuccessful at winning the Nelson seat.
“If you have a look at the results, [National Party] just won so many electorates which is fantastic… and because of that, there’s a few people getting on the list for the National Party,” he says.
“But we have a fantastic team of people all around the country and it’s great to be part of that team.”
Rachel acknowledged that while Saturday had been a “difficult night” for Labour, she was mindful that special votes tend to lean towards left-wing parties.
“I’m very mindful that anything could happen... we’ve got a couple of weeks to wait, so it will be an anxious time for both myself and Blair,” she says.
“It’s really clear that for both Blair and I, only one of us will get to be a Member of Parliament, and that will be whoever wins the seat, so given our results, I won’t be making it back in on the list.
“Right now my focus is on my team who are also in a waiting game and also making sure we are still available for people who might have urgent needs.”
Rachel says she had also been at Parliament to help her caucus colleagues with transitions now that Labour is in opposition, and she planned to spend time with family in the North Island while awaiting the special vote results.
She says her Nelson office remains open while final votes are counted for anyone who needs assistance.
While Nelson’s electorate results will be decided by special votes, the West Coast-Tasman’s preliminary results look to be blue.
National’s Maureen Pugh ended Saturday’s election night 915 votes ahead of Labour’s Damien O’Connor, who sought his fifth-straight win.
Maureen says while she was still “very susceptible” to the outcome of the special votes, she was “elated” to win on election night after contesting the seat since 2014.
“It’s an old cliche but the reality is this is truly one of the biggest privileges that you can ever hold, to be a representative for your community.
“Cautiously though... there is probably no one here more sensitive to what the special votes can deliver, because I have lost a list position twice after the specials have been counted. So I’m elated that on election night I have been elected as the electorate MP, and realistic that the special votes could change that.”
Maureen says on election night she also thought of her late daughter Haley, who passed away in August.
“She was very invested in me and my role, and she was probably my biggest mentor in terms of how to deal with life, and she was hugely supportive of what I was doing,” she says.
“We had a lot of time together before she died, and this was something that she was determined I was going to continue to do. On election night, of course, my thoughts did go to her, and we acknowledged the role that she had played in keeping me focused and enthused.”
Damien O’Connor was contacted for comment but did not respond.
