Sat 8 Nov 2008 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
9.55PM: As electorates begin to finalise their results and the counted vote increases Louisa Wall looks set to loose her Parliamentary seat, but several other glbt and glbt-friendly candidates look secure based on electorate results or list positions. Pita Sharples has amassed well over 4,000 votes compared to lesbian Louisa Wall’s 1,800 in the Maori electorate of Tamaki Makaurau, where 42% of polling places are counted. Wall appears to have dropped below the likely threshold for entering Parliament on list position. In the first available final result for a glbt candidate, National’s Nick Smith has beaten lesbian candidate and past Labour Party president Maryan Street in the Nelson electorate, by almost 8,000 votes. However, Street's return to Parliament is assured with her 9th position on Labour's list. However Street's campaigning has sen Labour poll strongly in the Party vote, with 12,554 votes against Nationals leading 14,165. Gay MP and cabinet minister Chris Carter has over 2,000 more votes than his nearest rival, National’s Tau Henare, in Te Atatu. In the same electorate gay Green Xavier Goldie has polled only 500 votes based on only 35% of the vote counted so far. It’s a close call between Charles Chauvel, United Future leader Peter Dunne and National’s Katrina Shanks in Ohariu. 67% of the vote counted gives Dunne a very narrow lead of 500 votes. Labour’s Annette King is romping home with over 10,000 votes compared to National’s only openly gay candidate Christopher Finlayson’s 6,000 in Rongotai, where 56% of the polling booths are counted. However, Finlayson will re-enter parliament on his high placed party list position. Gay-friendly candidate Judith Tizard of Labour is in a neck-and-neck battle with National’s Nikki Kaye in Auckland Central, and with around 80% of the polling booths counted is beginning to trail Kaye. Tizard has 7,800 electorates to Kaye's 8,800. At number 38 on the Labour list Tizard is still likely to take a place in Parliament. Despite early results showing him trailing National's Stephen Franks, gay candidate and highly placed Labour official Grant Robertson is now leading in Wellington Central with around 1,000 votes more than Franks, based on 85% of polling places counted.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Saturday, 8th November 2008 - 9:58pm