Otago (New Zealand electorate)

Otago was a New Zealand parliamentary electorate, which was replaced by the Waitaki electorate and Clutha-Southland electorates for the 2008 election.

The seat was held by the National MP Jacqui Dean MP.^[1] The seat covered the parts of the Otago region not in either Dunedin seat, excluding Clutha District, which is in Clutha-Southland. The main towns in Otago are Queenstown, Oamaru, Alexandra and Wanaka.

History

The first Otago seat was created in 1978, replacing the Otago Central seat.

The Otago seat was created in 1996 election for the first MMP election out of parts of an older Otago seat which did not include Oamaru or Alexandra, but did include the South Canterbury town of Twizel. Its size remained relatively unchanged at the boundary review set up after the 1996 and 2006 censuses, but a major upheaval of boundaries has seen Otago seat disappear and the electorate split between the Waitaki and Clutha-Southland electorates. At the same time, its boundary shifts northwards to take in a large chunk of Aoraki, including the towns of Temuka, Twizel, Kurow and Waimate. Because of the sweeping changes to the seat's boundaries, the electorate was renamed Waitaki.

Although Otago was a reasonably safe seat for the National Party, that party's poor showing at the 2002 election saw it elect a Labour MP, David Parker. Three years later, a swing to National in provincial New Zealand unseated Parker in favour of National's Jacqui Dean.

Members of Parliament

Key

  National     Labour     ACT  

List MPs

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

Election results

2005 election

General Election 2005: Otago[2]
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	Jacqui Dean		17,364			16,333
	Labour	N David Parker		15,369			14,573
	Green	Jane Pearce		1,596			2,251
	ACT	Gerry Eckhoff		848			585
	United Future	Gerald Telford		620			783
	Progressive	Barry Silcock		270			389
	Democrats	Richard Prosser		133			53
	Direct Democracy	Simon Guy		88			36
	NZ First						1,407
	Destiny						132
	Legalise Cannabis						106
	Māori						63
	Christian Heritage						38
	Alliance						26
	99 MP						11
	Libertarianz						10
	Family Rights						7
	RONZ						6
	One NZ						4
Informal votes				331			104
Total Valid votes				36,288			36,813
	National gain from Labour		Majority	1,995

2002 election

General Election 2002: Otago[3]
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	%	±%
	Labour	David Parker		14,113			12,943
	National	N Gavan Herlihy		13,429			8,472
	ACT	Gerry Eckhoff		1,294			1,919
	United Future	Allan Smellie		1,115			1,779
	Christian Heritage	Mike Ferguson		544			431
	Progressive	Hessel van Wieren		438			528
	Alliance	Sam Huggard		441			260
	Green						2,598
	NZ First						2,127
	ORNZ						635
	Legalise Cannabis						232
	One NZ						19
	NMP						7
	Mana Māori						4
Informal votes				489			92
Total Valid votes				31,374			31,954
	Labour win new seat		Majority	684

References

External links

• Electorate Profile Parliamentary Library