Christchurch Central by-election 1979

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The Christchurch Central by-election of 1979 was a by-election during the 39th New Zealand Parliament. It was prompted by the death of Bruce Barclay, a Labour Party MP, and resulted in Geoffrey Palmer, also of the Labour Party, being elected to replace him for the seat of Christchurch Central. Palmer would eventually go on to become Prime Minister. The by-election was somewhat embarrassing for the National Party, whose candidate was pushed into third place by Social Credit's Terry Heffernan.

	Name	Party	Votes	Percentage
	Geoffrey Palmer	Labour Party	6,149	64.2%
	Terry Heffernan	Social Credit Party	1,759	18.4%
	D P Duncan	National Party	1,634	17.1%
	S A Sadler	Tory Party	26	0.27%
	Michael Hansen	Economic Euthenics Party	10	0.10%