National Party list candidate and senior minister Chris Bishop is unlikely to return to Parliament after losing the Hutt South electorate to Labour’s Ginny Andersen on preliminary election night counts. The result follows a significant drop in the National Party vote, which fell to under 30 percent in preliminary counts from the 38 percent recorded in 2023.
Chris Bishop faces exit from Parliament
Bishop, who serves as one of the most senior ministers in the coalition Government, trailed Andersen in the Hutt South contest. According to NZ Herald, preliminary numbers showed Andersen leading with 17,957 votes to Bishop’s 17,068. While 1News reported Andersen was ahead by approximately 1,000 votes with nearly 90 percent of the vote counted, ODT noted the gap was about 600 votes with 60 percent of the vote counted.
Bishop, who was ranked third on the National Party list, has previously held the Hutt South seat, winning it in 2017 and 2023 after losing it to Andersen in 2020. Addressing supporters at an event in Eastbourne, Bishop expressed his disappointment regarding his political future.
I’ve devoted 12 years of my life to representing Hutt South as both a list MP and as an electorate MP … so it’s devastating that I won’t be in the next Parliament to stand up for the Hutt but I’m sure that Ginny will continue to do that as the elected MP for Hutt South.
Bishop also shared his plans for the immediate future, stating, Thank you very much to everyone for being here to support and once all the final results are through, we’re going to have a big party, drink a lot of beer, and eat a lot of food, it’s going to be great.
Senior National MPs lose list seats
The decline in the party vote has created a situation where several high-ranking National MPs may not return to Parliament. Because National is expected to win more than 40 electorate seats, the party may not secure any list seats under the current preliminary figures, according to 1News.
The potential casualties include:
- Nicola Willis: who stood as a list-only candidate.
- Paul Goldsmith: who holds multiple portfolios in the coalition government, including Minister of Justice, Minister of Defence, Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, Minister of Defence, Minister for Media and Communications, and Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, who contested the Epsom electorate against ACT leader David Seymour.
- Gerry Brownlee: The Speaker of the House, who also stood as a list-only candidate.
In Epsom, 1News reported that Goldsmith trailed Seymour, with Seymour holding 37.1 percent and Goldsmith at 30.5 percent as of 11pm. Goldsmith told the broadcaster that he had closed the gap considerably, but not good enough,
adding, it is the nature of MMP.
Gerry Brownlee reflects on 30-year career
Gerry Brownlee, the longest continuously serving member of Parliament, has been the Speaker of the House. He first entered Parliament for the Christchurch Ilam electorate in 1996. Speaking to RNZ, Brownlee described his election night as a pretty chill sort of day
spent tidying his yard.
On the possibility of his departure, Brownlee told ODT that he had no regrets whatsoever.
He also told The Press that the party vote had not been as high as the party would have liked, but noted that the number of constituencies won suggests the National Party remains strong.
Brownlee suggested that a vote-splitting campaign had influenced the results. He told The Press that the campaign has not guaranteed the result that they were trying to hoodwink everyone with.
Senior National MP Mark Mitchell also commented on the issue to Newstalk ZB, stating, It just felt like we were sort of campaigning against weird campaigns like that throughout the whole campaign. Without a doubt, the split vote campaign was a big distraction.
Official results expected November 27
While the preliminary results suggest a significant loss of seniority for the National Party, the final outcome remains subject to special votes. The Electoral Commission is scheduled to declare the official results on November 27, as reported by Chris Lynch Media.