Election 2020: The big winners and losers in Auckland

Election night saw New Zealand’s largest city turning red, with some of Auckland’s ‘safe’ National seats taken by Labour.

Upper Harbour, held by former National Party deputy leader Paula Bennett since its formation in 2014, saw a Labour victory, with Vanushi Walters winning the majority of the vote over National’s Jake Bezzant.

The reasonably safe blue seat of Northcote also looks to see an upset, with Labour’s Shanan Halbert claiming the seat from incumbent Dan Bidois, after six consecutive elections won by National, at 1am Sunday, with less than 1 per cent of votes left to be counted.

But perhaps the biggest surprise of all came in Auckland Central, with Green Party candidate Chlöe Swarbrick taking out the hotly-contested seat over Labour’s Helen White and National’s Emma Mellow, in a shock win.

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The 26-year-old fought a tight race with White, with only about 500 votes between the pair through most of the count.

Labour also took out the city’s newly created Takanini electorate in south Auckland, which was expected to start its life under National, under candidate Neru Leavasa, a GP and metastatic bone cancer survivor.

MPs Carmel Sepuloni, Michael Wood and Phil Twyford held onto their respective seats in Kelston, Mt Roskill and Te Atatū.

Continuing Labour’s more than seven decade-stronghold, Jacinda Ardern held onto the Mt Albert seat with a clear majority – 23,198 votes to Melissa Lee’s 6621 votes.

Two electorates saw wider margins than others.

New Lynn MP Deborah Russell held onto her seat, winning by more than 10,000 votes over runner-up Lisa Whyte, and Panmure-Ōtāhuhu MP Jenny Salesa cruised to victory, with a 13,500 vote difference.

It was also looking likely Labour would hold onto both Māori electorates covering the Auckland region.

With 97 per cent of votes counted, Peeni Henare looked set to take Tāmaki Makaurau with fewer than 900 votes over Māori Party co-leader John Tamihere.

Te Tai Tokerau, the Māori electorate for Northland which covers some of north and West Auckland, was won by Labour deputy leader and incumbent Kelvin Davis.

However, it wasn’t all doom and gloom for National in Auckland.

Leader of the opposition Judith Collins held onto the Papakura seat, beating the Labour candidate by 6000 votes.

Former Air New Zealand chief executive Christopher Luxon unsurprisingly clinched the win in Botany, with 16,000 votes over the Labour candidate’s 11,838 votes.

National’s Erica Stanford won East Coast Bays by more than 800 votes, and Chris Penk held onto the newly-formed Kaipara ki Mahurangi (Helensville) electorate.

There wasn’t much between National and Labour in Maungakiekie, with Denise Lee winning by slightly over 1000 votes.

National’s Simeon Brown had an easy victory in Pakuranga, receiving more than double the votes for Labour candidate Nerissa Henry.

The Whangaparaoā electorate, first created for the 2020 election, was won by National MP Mark Mitchell.

ACT Party leader David Seymour maintained his stronghold on Epsom, with more than 16,400 votes, and looks set to take nine new MPs with him into parliament after increasing his party vote share.

The election was a major win for Labour overall, which claimed 49 per cent of the overall vote, meaning it could govern alone.