8.50PM: With a rush of polling places expected to report their votes soon indications are that Louisa Wall, Labour's lesbian candidate in the south Auckland electorate of Manurewa, will easily be in the new Parliament. Wall has nearly twice as many votes, over 2,500, as all her opponents combined, a lead she has maintained since the polling places closed at 7pm. It's still too early and far too close to call Auckland Central between extremely gay-friendly candidates Jacinda Adern (Labour) and Nikki Kaye (National). Polling place counts are speeding up in Wellington's Ohariu where United Future leader Peter Dunne is maintianing a narrow lead over Labour's Charles Chauvel. Dunne is considered to be extremely weak on glbt issues and Chauvel, who is high on Labour's list and will return to Parliament regardless, was campaigning hard in an attempt to eject him from the house. With 17% of the party vote counted National looks set to have around 62 seats, ahead of Labour's 32 and the Greens' 13. This leaves the Nats' lesbian candidate, Claudette Hauiti, biting her nails at number 63 on National's list. Hauiti is not polling well in the Mangere electorate and will have to rely on her list position to get into Parliament.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Saturday, 26th November 2011 - 8:35pm