Pakuranga (New Zealand electorate)

Pakuranga is a New Zealand Parliamentary electorate.

It is currently held by Maurice Williamson MP, a member of the National Party.

Population centres

Pakuranga is one of sixty-three general electorates used in New Zealand general elections. It covers the population centres of Pakuranga, Farm Cove, Half Moon Bay, Bucklands Beach, parts of Highland Park and parts of Howick.

History

Pakuranga was first contested in 1963, and won by future Labour Party frontbencher Bob Tizard. It was recaptured by National in 1972, and has stayed with National since, save for a brief interlude - the New Zealand Party's presence on the ballot paper in 1984 split the centre-right vote and handed the seat to Social Credit's Neil Morrison.

With the introduction of MMP in 1996 the seat was expanded to absorb the most of the neighbouring seat of Howick. Its boundaries have remained largely unchanged since; an attempt in 2007 to resurrect a seat around Howick by pulling the Pakuranga boundaries across the Tamaki River and adding Panmure, Point England and Glen Innes from Auckland City was abandoned in the face of strenuous local objection. Instead, Howick was renamed Botany and centered on the rapid-growth areas of Flat Bush, Botany Downs and Dannemora.

Pakuranga is a safe National seat, with current MP Maurice Williamson being easily re-elected at every election since ousting Morrison in 1987.

Members of Parliament for Pakuranga

Unless otherwise stated, all MPs terms began and ended at a general election.

Name	Party	Elected	Left Office	Reason
Bob Tizard	Labour	1963, 1966, 1969	1972	contested Otahuhu instead
Gavin Downie	National	1972, 1975	1978	deselected
Pat Hunt	National	1978, 1981	1984	defeated
Neil Morrison	Social Credit	1984	1987	defeated
Maurice Williamson	National	1987, 1990, 1993, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2005, 2008	incumbent

List MPs from Pakuranga

Members of Parliament elected from party lists in elections where that person also unsuccessfully contested the Pakuranga electorate. Unless otherwise stated, all MPs terms began and ended at general elections.

Name	Party	First Elected	Left Office	Contested Pakuranga
Pita Paraone	New Zealand First	2002	2008	2002, 2005, 2008

Election results

2011 election

General Election 2011: Pakuranga
Notes: Green background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	National	Y Maurice Williamson		20,694	65.86	+4.28	20,471	62.80	+3.10
	Labour	Sunny Kaushal		6,848	21.79	+0.17	6,068	18.62	-3.66
	Conservative	Lance Gedge		1,634	5.20	+5.20	1,156	3.55	+3.55
	NZ First	Helen Jane Mulford		1,430	4.55	+1.26	1,847	5.67	+2.18
	ACT	Chris Simmons		816	2.60	-3.74	585	1.79	-5.39
	Green						2,024	6.21	+2.61
	United Future						149	0.46	-0.50
	Legalise Cannabis						112	0.34	+0.12
	Māori						109	0.33	+0.03
	Mana						40	0.12	+0.12
	Alliance						20	0.06	+0.02
	Libertarianz						9	0.03	-0.01
	Democrats						5	0.02	+0.004
Informal votes				1,041			202
Total Valid votes				31,422			32,595
	National hold		Majority	13,846	44.06	+4.10

Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 45,912

2008 election

General Election 2008: Pakuranga
Notes: Green background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	National	Y Maurice Williamson		21,430	61.58		21,099	59.70
	Labour	Brian Kelly		7,524	21.62		7,872	22.27
	ACT	Andrew Jollands		2,205	6.34		2,541	7.19
	Green	Zachary Dorner		1,480	4.25		1,273	3.60
	NZ First	Pita Paraone		1,146	3.29		1,231	3.48
	United Future	Quentin Todd		409	1.18		338	0.96
	Progressive	Jeffrey Ly		354	1.02		265	0.75
	Kiwi	Brian Hilder		252	0.72		123	0.35
	Family Party						186	0.53
	Bill and Ben						137	0.39
	Māori						106	0.30
	Legalise Cannabis						79	0.22
	Pacific						38	0.11
	Alliance						15	0.04
	Libertarianz						13	0.04
	Workers Party						12	0.03
	RAM						6	0.02
	Democrats						4	0.01
	RONZ						4	0.01
Informal votes				329			80
Total Valid votes				34,800			35,342
	National hold		Majority	13,906	39.96

2005 election

General Election 2005: Pakuranga
Notes: Green background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	National	Y Maurice Williamson		19,159	54.03		19,173	53.28
	Labour	Michael Wood		9,577	27.01		10,810	30.31
	Independent	Steve Baron		1,807	5.10
	NZ First	Pita Paraone		1,398	3.54		2105	5.85
	ACT	Bronny Jacobson		1,216	3.43		1,354	3.76
	United Future	Ian McInnes		833	2.35		878	2.44
	Progressive	Ly Meng		560	1.58		297	0.83
	Destiny	David Jesze		488	1.38		206	0.57
	Christian Heritage	Ewen McQueen		373	1.05		80	0.22
	Direct Democracy	Kevin Moore		49	0.14		11	0.03
	Green						907	2.52
	Māori						73	0.20
	Legalise Cannabis						36	0.10
	Libertarianz						14	0.04
	Alliance						13	0.04
	RONZ						7	0.02
	99 MP						6	0.02
	One NZ						6	0.02
	Family Rights						5	0.01
	Democrats						4	0.01
Informal votes				359			88
Total Valid votes				35,460			35,983
	National hold		Majority	9,582	27.02

External links

• Electorate Profile Parliamentary Library