The 2011 New Zealand general election took place on Saturday 26 November 2011 to determine the membership of the 50th New Zealand Parliament. One hundred and twenty-one MPs were elected to the

New Zealand House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the sole chamber of the New Zealand Parliament. The House passes laws, provides ministers to form Cabinet, and supervises the work of government. It is also responsible for adopting the state's budgets and ap ...

, 70 from single-member electorates, and 51 from party lists including one

overhang seat Overhang seats are constituency seats won in an election under the traditional mixed member proportional (MMP) system (as it originated in Germany), when a party's share of the nationwide votes would entitle it to fewer seats than the number of ...

. New Zealand since 1996 has used the

Mixed Member Proportional Mixed-member proportional representation (MMP or MMPR) is a mixed electoral system in which votes cast are considered in local elections and also to determine overall party vote tallies, which are used to allocate additional members to produce ...

(MMP) voting system, giving voters two votes: one for a political party and the other for their local electorate MP. A referendum on the voting system was held at the same time as the election, with voters voting by majority to keep the MMP system. A total of 3,070,847 people were registered to vote in the election, with over 2.2 million votes cast and a turnout of 74.21% – the lowest turnout since 1887. The incumbent National Party, led by

John Key Sir John Phillip Key (born 9 August 1961) is a New Zealand retired politician who served as the 38th Prime Minister of New Zealand from 2008 to 2016 and as Leader of the New Zealand National Party from 2006 to 2016. After resigning from bo ...

, gained the plurality with 47.3% of the party vote and 59 seats, two seats short of holding a majority. The opposing Labour Party, led by

Phil Goff Philip Bruce Goff (born 22 June 1953) is a New Zealand politician. He was a member of the New Zealand Parliament from 1981 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 2016. He served as leader of the Labour Party and leader of the Opposition between 11 N ...

, lost ground winning 27.5% of the vote and 34 seats, while the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

won 11.1% of the vote and 14 seats – the biggest share of the party vote for a minor party since 1996.

New Zealand First New Zealand First ( mi, Aotearoa Tuatahi), commonly abbreviated to NZ First, is a nationalist and populist political party in New Zealand. The party formed in July 1993 following the resignation on 19 March 1993 of its leader and founder, Win ...

, having won no seats in 2008 due to its failure to either reach the 5% threshold or win an electorate, made a comeback with 6.6% of the vote entitling them to eight seats. National's confidence and supply partners in the 49th Parliament meanwhile suffered losses.

ACT New Zealand ACT New Zealand, known simply as ACT (), is a right-wing, classical-liberal political party in New Zealand. According to former party leader Rodney Hide, ACT's values are "individual freedom, personal responsibility, doing the best for our natur ...

won less than a third of the party vote it received in 2008, reducing from five seats to one. The

Māori Party Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

was reduced from five seats to three, as the party vote split between the Māori Party and former Māori Party MP Hone Harawira's

Mana Party The Mana Movement, formerly known as the Mana Party, is a former political party in New Zealand. The party was led by Hone Harawira who formed it in April 2011 following his resignation from the Māori Party. Harawira won the by-election in T ...

United Future United Future New Zealand, usually known as United Future, was a centrist political party in New Zealand. The party was in government between 2005 and 2017, first alongside Labour (2005–2008) and then supporting National (2008–2017). U ...

lost party votes, but retained their one seat in Parliament. Following the election, National reentered into

confidence and supply In a parliamentary democracy based on the Westminster system, confidence and supply are required for a ruling cabinet to retain power in the lower house. A confidence-and-supply agreement is one whereby a party or independent members of par ...

agreements with ACT and United Future on 5 December 2011, and with the Māori Party on 11 December 2011, to form a

minority government A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in t ...

with a seven-seat majority (64 seats to 57) and give the

Fifth National Government Neville Chamberlain formed the Chamberlain war ministry in 1939 after declaring war on Germany. Chamberlain led the country for the first eight months of the Second World War, until the Norway Debate in Parliament led Chamberlain to resign a ...

a second term in office.

Background

Election date and other key dates

The election date was set as Saturday 26 November 2011, as predicted by the media. Breaking with tradition, Prime Minister John Key announced the election date in February. Traditionally, the election date is a closely guarded secret, announced as late as possible. The date follows the tradition of holding the general election on the last Saturday of November unless the schedule is interrupted by a snap election or to circumvent holding a by-election. The

Governor-General Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...

must issue

writs In common law, a writ (Anglo-Saxon ''gewrit'', Latin ''breve'') is a formal written order issued by a body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction; in modern usage, this body is generally a court. Warrants, prerogative writs, subpoenas, an ...

for an election within seven days of the expiration or dissolution of Parliament. Under section 17 of the

Constitution Act 1986 The Constitution Act 1986 is an Act of the New Zealand Parliament that forms a major part of the constitution of New Zealand. It lays down the framework defining fundamental political principles of governance, and establishes the powers of the ...

, Parliament expires three years "from the day fixed for the return of the writs issued for the last preceding general election of members of the House of Representatives, and no longer." The writs for the previous general election were returnable on 27 November 2008. As a result, the 49th Parliament would have expired, if not dissolved earlier, on 27 November 2011. As that day was a Sunday, the last available working day was 25 November 2011. Consequently, the last day for issuance of writs of election was 2 December 2011. Except in some circumstances (such a recount or the death/incapacitation of an electorate candidate), the writs must be returned within 50 days of their issuance with the last possible working day being 20 January 2012. Because polling day must be a Saturday, the last possible polling date for the election was 7 January 2012, allowing time for the counting of special votes. The Christmas/New Year holiday period made the last realistic date for the election Saturday 10 December 2011. The

Rugby World Cup 2011 The 2011 Rugby World Cup was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The International Rugby Board (IRB) selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japan and South Af ...

was hosted by New Zealand between 9 September and 23 October 2011, and ruled out all the possible election dates in this period. This left two possible windows for the general election: on or before 2 September and 29 October to 10 December. Key dates of the election were: However, as the recount of the Waitakere was not completed in time for the writ to be returned on 15 December, the return of the writ was delayed to 17 December 2011.

49th Parliament, 2008–2011

Following the 2008 general election, National Party leader and Prime Minister

announced a confidence and supply agreement with ACT, the

and

to form the

. These arrangements gave the National-led government a majority of 16 seats, with 69 on confidence-and-supply in the 122-seat Parliament. Labour, Greens and the

Progressives Progressivism holds that it is possible to improve human societies through political action. As a political movement, progressivism seeks to advance the human condition through social reform based on purported advancements in science, techn ...

are all in opposition, although only the Labour and Progressive parties formally constitute the formal Opposition; the Greens have a minor agreement with the government but are not committed to ''

'' support. At the 2008 election, the National Party had 58 seats, the Labour Party 43 seats, Green Party 9 seats, ACT and Māori Party five each, and Progressive and United Future one each. During the Parliament session, two members defected from their parties – Chris Carter was expelled from Labour in August 2010, and Hone Harawira left the Māori Party in February 2011. Carter continued as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

, while Harawira resigned from parliament to recontest his

Te Tai Tokerau Te Tai Tokerau () is a New Zealand parliamentary Māori electorate that was created out of the Northern Maori electorate ahead of the first Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) election in 1996. It was held first by Tau Henare representing New Ze ...

electorate in a by-election under his newly formed

. Two MPs resigned from Parliament before the end of the session, John Carter of National and Chris Carter, but as they resigned within 6 months of an election, their seats remained vacant. At the dissolution of the 49th parliament on 20 October 2011, National held 57 seats, Labour 42 seats, Green 9 seats, ACT 5 seats, Māori 4 seats, and Progressive, United Future and Mana one each.

Marginal seats in 2008

At the

2008 election This electoral calendar 2008 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2008 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, even though they are not elections. By-elections are ...

, the following seats were won by a majority of less than 1000 votes:

MPs retiring in 2011

Nineteen MPs, including all five ACT MPs and the sole Progressive MP, intended to retire at the end of the 49th Parliament. One of the ACT MPs, John Boscawen, contested

Tāmaki Tāmaki is a small suburb of East Auckland, 11 kilometres from the Auckland CBD, in the North Island of New Zealand. It is located by the banks of the estuarial Tāmaki River, which is a southern arm of the Hauraki Gulf. The suburb is between t ...

, but did not expect to win and was not on the party list. National MP Allan Peachey died three weeks before the election.

Electorate boundaries

Electorates in the election were the same as at the 2008 election. Electorates and their boundaries in New Zealand are reviewed every five years after the New Zealand census. The last review took place in 2007, following the 2006 census. The next review is not due until 2014, following the 2013 census (the 2011 census was cancelled due to the 22 February

2011 Christchurch earthquake A major earthquake occurred in Christchurch on Tuesday 22 February 2011 at 12:51 p.m. local time (23:51 UTC, 21 February). The () earthquake struck the entire of the Canterbury region in the South Island, centred south-east ...

Election procedures

On 17 September 2010, Justice Minister Simon Power announced the government was introducing legislation making this the first election where voters would be able to re-enrol completely on-line. Enrolments on-line beforehand still required the election form to be printed, signed, and sent by post. Voters in the

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

region were encouraged to cast their votes before election day if they had doubt about being able to get to a polling booth on election day or to avoid long queues, as many traditional polling booths are unavailable due to the earthquakes. Nineteen advance voting stations were made available, with three of them campervans, which are usually only used in rural areas of New Zealand. The

Christchurch Central Christchurch Central is a New Zealand parliamentary electorate in the South Island city of Christchurch. The electorate was established for the 1946 election and, until 2011 had always been won by the Labour Party. Since 2008, the incumbent wa ...

electorate, for example, has 33 polling stations in 2011 compared to 45 in 2008.

Contesting parties and candidates

At the close of nominations, 544 individuals had been nominated to contest the election, down from 682 at the 2008 election. Of those, 91 were list-only, 73 were electorate-only (43 from registered parties, 17 independents, and 13 from non-registered parties), and 380 contested both list and electorate. Political parties registered with the Electoral Commission on Writ Day can contest the general election as a party, allowing it to submit a party list to contend the party vote, and have a party election expenses limit in addition to individual candidate limits. At Writ Day, sixteen political parties were registered to contend the general election. At the close of nominations, thirteen registered parties had put forward a party list to the commission to contest the party vote, down from nineteen in 2008.

The Kiwi Party The Kiwi Party was a political party operating in New Zealand between 2007 and 2011. Briefly known as Future New Zealand, it was a breakaway from the United Future New Zealand party and sought to carry on the tradition of Future New Zealand. Th ...

, the New Citizen Party and the Progressive Party were registered, but did not contend the election under their own banners. The Kiwi Party and the New Citizen Party stood candidates for the Conservative Party. In addition to the registered parties and their candidates, thirteen candidates from nine non-registered parties contested electorates. The Human Rights Party contested Auckland Central, the

Communist League The Communist League (German: ''Bund der Kommunisten)'' was an international political party established on 1 June 1847 in London, England. The organisation was formed through the merger of the League of the Just, headed by Karl Schapper, and t ...

Manukau East and Mount Roskill, the Nga Iwi Morehu Movement contested Hauraki-Waikato and Te Tai Hauauru, the

Pirate Party Pirate Party is a label adopted by political parties around the world. Pirate parties support civil rights, direct democracy (including e-democracy) or alternatively participation in government, reform of copyright and patent law, free shari ...

contested Hamilton East and Wellington Central, the Sovereignty Party contested Clutha-Southland and Te Tai Hauauru, Economic Euthenics contested Wigram, New Economics contested Wellington Central, Restore All Things In Christ contested Dunedin South, and the Youth Party contested West Coast-Tasman. Seventeen

candidates also contested the electorates in thirteen electorates: Christchurch Central, Coromandel, Epsom (two), Hamilton West (two), New Plymouth, Ōtaki, Rangitikei (two), Rongotai, Tāmaki (two), Tauranga, Waitaki, Wellington Central, and Ikaroa-Rawhiti

Campaigning

Epsom and the Tea Tape scandal

On 11 November, National Party leader John Key met with

John Banks John Banks or Bankes may refer to: Politics and law *Sir John Banks, 1st Baronet (1627–1699), English merchant and Member of Parliament * John Banks (American politician) (1793–1864), U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania * John Gray Banks (18 ...

, the ACT candidate for

Epsom Epsom is the principal town of the Borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England, about south of central London. The town is first recorded as ''Ebesham'' in the 10th century and its name probably derives from that of a Saxon landowner. The ...

, over a cup of tea at a cafe in Newmarket to send a signal to Epsom voters about voting tactically. The National Party passively campaigned for Epsom voters to give their electorate vote to ACT while giving their party vote to National. This would allow ACT to bypass the 5% party vote threshold and enter Parliament by winning an electorate seat, thereby providing a coalition partner for National. However, in October and November 2011, polls of the Epsom electorate vote taken by various companies showed that the National candidate for Epsom, Paul Goldsmith, was leading in the polls and likely to win the seat. During the meeting, the two politicians' discussion was recorded by a device left on the table in a black pouch. The recording tapes were leaked to '' The Herald on Sunday'' newspaper, and subsequently created a media frenzy over the content of the unreleased tapes.

Debates

TVNZ , type = Crown entity , industry = Broadcast television , num_locations = New Zealand , location = Auckland, New Zealand , area_served = Nationally (New Zealand) and some Pacific Island nations such as the Cook Islands, Fiji, and the ...

held three party leaders' debates: two between the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, and one between the leaders of the smaller parties.

TV3 Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to: Television * Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso * Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala * Channel 3 (Algeria), a public Algerian TV channel owned by E ...

hosted a single debate between the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.

Pre-election coalition preferences

The National Party ruled out working with New Zealand First's Winston Peters after the election. ACT confirmed it would work with National after the elections. The Labour Party leader

ruled out a coalition agreement with Hone Harawira's new

, but left open the possibility of reaching an agreement with New Zealand First. In the 16 November minor parties debate, leaders from the minor parties stated their preferences: * The Green's preference was it would work in a coalition government with Labour, but wouldn't completely rule out working with National. * Mana would not work in a coalition government with National and/or ACT * Māori would not work in a coalition government with ACT. * No preference was stated for New Zealand First, but later said it would not work with National or Labour. * United Future ruled out working with Labour

Media bias

A Massey University study released in November 2012 suggested newspaper coverage was favourable towards National and John Key. In the month leading up to the election, the big four newspapers in New Zealand – ''

The New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspape ...

'', ''The Herald on Sunday'', '' The Dominion Post'' and ''

The Sunday Star-Times The ''Sunday Star-Times'' is a New Zealand newspaper published each weekend in Auckland. It covers both national and international news, and is a member of the New Zealand Press Association and Newspaper Publishers Association of New Zealand. ...

'' – printed 72 percent more photos of Key than his opponent, Phil Goff, and devoted twice as many column inches of text coverage.

Opinion polling

The nature of the Mixed Member Proportional voting system, whereby the share of seats in Parliament a party gets is determined by its share of the nationwide party vote, means aside from normal polling bias and error, opinion polling in New Zealand is fairly accurate in predicting the outcome of an election compared with other countries. Opinion polls were undertaken periodically since the 2008 election by

MediaWorks New Zealand MediaWorks New Zealand is a New Zealand-based company specialising in radio, outdoor advertising and interactive media. It is jointly owned by U.S. company Oaktree Capital Management and out-of-home advertising company QMS. It operates nine ...

(

3 News ''Newshub'' (stylised as ''Newshub.'') is a New Zealand news service that airs on the television channels Three and Eden, as well as on digital platforms. It formerly operated across radio stations run by MediaWorks Radio until December 202 ...

Reid Research),

(Herald Digipoll),

Roy Morgan Research Roy Morgan, formerly known as Roy Morgan Research, is an independent Australian social and political market research and public opinion statistics company headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria. It operates nationally as Roy Morgan and internatio ...

, and

Television New Zealand , type = Crown entity , industry = Broadcast television , num_locations = New Zealand , location = Auckland, New Zealand , area_served = Nationally (New Zealand) and some Pacific Island nations such as the Cook Islands, Fiji, and the Solo ...

('' One News''

Colmar Brunton Colmar Brunton was a market research agency founded in New Zealand in 1981. It was later merged with Kantar in both Australia and New Zealand in 2020–21. Services There are two Colmar Brunton organizations, which operate in the Asia Pacific ...

), with polls having also being conducted by

Fairfax Media Fairfax Media was a media company in Australia and New Zealand, with investments in newspaper, magazines, radio and digital properties. The company was founded by John Fairfax as John Fairfax and Sons, who purchased '' The Sydney Morning Hera ...

(Fairfax Media Research International) since July 2011. The graph on the right shows the collated results of all five polls for parties that have polled above the 5% electoral threshold. After the 2008 election, National gained in popularity, and since 2009 has regularly polled in the 50-55% range, peaking at 55% in August 2009 and October 2011, before falling to 51% in the week before the election. Labour and Green meanwhile kept steady after the election at 31-34% and 7-8% respectively until July 2011, when Labour started to lose support, falling to just 26% before the election. The majority of Labour's loss was the Green's gain, rising to 13% in the same period. No other party peaked on average above 5% in the period.

Results

Parliamentary parties

, colspan=12 align=center, NZ Parliament 2011

, - style="text-align:center;" ! colspan=2 rowspan=2 style="width:213px;" , Party ! Colspan=3 , Party vote ! Colspan=3 , Electorate vote ! Colspan=4 , Seats , - style="text-align:center;" ! Votes ! % ! Change
( pp) ! Votes ! % ! Change
( pp) ! List ! Electorate ! Total ! +/- , - , , 1,058,636 , 47.31 , 2.38 , 1,027,696 , 47.31 , 0.71 , 17 , 42 , 59 , 1 , - , , 614,937 , 27.48 , 6.50 , 762,897 , 35.12 , 0.10 , 12 , 22 , 34 , 9 , - , , 247,372 , 11.06 , 4.33 , 155,492 , 7.16 , 1.53 , 14 , 0 , 14 , 5 , - , , 147,544 , 6.59 , 2.53 , 39,892 , 1.84 , 0.15 , 8 , 0 , 8 , 8 , - , , 31,982 , 1.43 , 0.96 , 39,320 , 1.81 , 1.53 , 0 , 3 , 3 , 2 , - , , 24,168 , 1.08 , ''new'' , 29,872 , 1.38 , ''new'' , 0 , 1 , 1 , ''new'' , - , , 23,889 , 1.07 , 2.58 , 31,001 , 1.43 , 1.56 , 0 , 1 , 1 , 4 , - , , 13,443 , 0.60 , 0.27 , 18,792 , 0.87 , 0.26 , 0 , 1 , 1 , , - , , 59,237 , 2.65 , ''new'' , 51,678 , 2.38 , ''new'' , 0 , 0 , 0 , ''new'' , - , , 11,738 , 0.52 , 0.12 , 6,384 , 0.29 , 0.12 , 0 , 0 , 0 , , - , , 1,714 , 0.08 , 0.03 , 2,255 , 0.10 , 0.02 , 0 , 0 , 0 , , - , , 1,595 , 0.07 , 0.02 , 1,459 , 0.07 , 0.01 , 0 , 0 , 0 , , - , , 1,209 , 0.05 , 0.03 , 1,245 , 0.06 , 0.02 , 0 , 0 , 0 , , - , style="background-color:#ffffff" , , style="text-align:left;" , Unregistered parties , — , — , — , 1,557 , 0.07 , 0.01 , — , , 0 , , - , , — , — , — , 2,894 , 0.13 , 0.40 , — , , 0 , , - ! colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Valid votes ! 2,237,464 ! 98.18 ! 0.48 ! 2,172,434 ! 95.32 ! 1.47 ! Colspan=4 , , - , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Informal votes , 19,872 , 0.87 , 0.37 , 53,332 , 2.34 , 1.27 , Colspan=4 , , - , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Disallowed votes , 21,653 , 0.95 , 0.11 , 53,223 , 2.34 , 0.20 , Colspan=4 , , - , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Below

electoral threshold The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of the primary vote that a candidate or political party requires to achieve before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can ...

, 75,493 , 3.31 , , — , — , — , Colspan=4 , , - ! colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Total ! 2,278,989 ! 100 ! ! 2,278,989 ! 100 ! ! 51 ! 70 ! 121 ! 1 , - , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Eligible voters and Turnout , 3,070,847 , 74.21 , 5.25 , 3,070,847 , 74.21 , 5.25 , Colspan=4 ,

Votes summary

Electorate results

New Zealand electorates 2011 election (insets)

Prior to the election, the National Party held the majority of the electorate seats with 41. Labour held 20 seats, Māori held four seats, and ACT, Mana, Progressive, United Future and an ex-Labour independent held one seat each. After the election, National gained one seat to hold 42 seats, Labour gained three seats to hold 23 electorates, Māori lost one seat to hold three, and ACT, Mana, and United Future held steady with one seat each. A National or Labour candidate took second place in all the general electorates except Rodney, where it was Conservative Party leader Colin Craig. In eleven electorates, the incumbents did not seek re-election, and new MPs were elected. In Coromandel, North Shore, Northland, Rangitikei, Rodney and

, the seats were passed from incumbent National MPs to new National MPs; in

, the seat was passed from the incumbent ACT MP to the new ACT MP; and in Dunedin North and Manurewa, the seats were passed from incumbent Labour MPs to new Labour MPs. Labour also won

Te Atatū Te Atatū (from the Māori : "the dawn") is the name of two adjacent suburbs in West Auckland, New Zealand: '' Te Atatū Peninsula'' and '' Te Atatū South''. They are located next to each other some 10 kilometres to the west of the Auckland c ...

from the retiring ex-Labour independent, and Wigram from the retiring Progressive MP. Of the 59 seats where the incumbent sought re-election, four changed hands. In

West Coast-Tasman West Coast-Tasman electorate boundaries used since the West Coast-Tasman is a New Zealand parliamentary electorate. Since its formation for the , it has been held by Damien O'Connor of the Labour Party apart from one parliamentary term, when ...

, Labour's Damien O'Connor regained the seat from National's Chris Auchinvole, who defeated him for the seat in 2008. In Waimakariri, National's Kate Wilkinson defeated Labour MP Clayton Cosgrove, and in Te Tai Tonga, Labour's Rino Tirikatene defeated Maori Party MP Rahui Katene.

on election night ended with incumbent Labour MP Brendon Burns and National's

Nicky Wagner Nicola Joanne Wagner (born 23 July 1953) is a New Zealand teacher, businesswoman and politician. She represented the Christchurch Central electorate for the New Zealand National Party in the New Zealand Parliament. Early life and career Born in ...

tied on 10,493 votes each, and on official counts, swung to Nicky Wagner with a 45-vote majority, increasing to 47 votes on a

judicial recount An election recount is a repeat tabulation of votes cast in an election that is used to determine the correctness of an initial count. Recounts will often take place if the initial vote tally during an election is extremely close. Election reco ...

. Despite losing their electorate seats, Chris Auchinvole and Clayton Cosgrove were re-elected into parliament via the party list. On election night, Waitakere was won by incumbent National MP

Paula Bennett Paula Lee Bennett (born 9 April 1969) is a New Zealand former politician who served as the 18th deputy prime minister of New Zealand between December 2016 and October 2017. She served as the deputy leader of the National Party from 2016 to 2020 ...

with a 349-vote majority over Labour's

Carmel Sepuloni Carmel Jean Sepuloni (born 1977) is a New Zealand politician and a member of parliament for the Labour Party. She was first elected to Parliament following the 2008 general election as a list member, becoming New Zealand's first MP of Tongan ...

. On official counts, it swung to Sepuloni with a majority of 11 votes, and Bennett subsequently requested a judicial recount, and on the recount, the seat swung back to Bennett with a majority of nine votes. Bennett was declared elected, and Sepuloni was not returned via the party list due to her list ranking, being replaced in the Labour caucus with

Raymond Huo Raymond Huo (; born 1964) is a New Zealand politician who was a Member of Parliament from 2008 to 2014 and from 2017 to 2020. He was first elected in as the New Zealand Labour Party's first MP of Chinese descent. He was the third Chinese New Z ...

. Five electorates returned with the winner having a majority of less than one thousand – Waitakere (9), Christchurch Central (47), Waimakariri (642), (717) and Tāmaki Makaurau (936).

The table below shows the results of the 2011 general election: Key: , - , colspan=8 style="background-color:#EEEEEE;text-align:center;", Māori Electorates , - * ;Notes

List results

The election was notable for the entry in Parliament of New Zealand's first ever profoundly deaf MP,

Mojo Mathers Mojo Celeste Mathers (née Minrod, born 23 November 1966) is a New Zealand politician and a former Member of Parliament (MP) for the Green Party. She became known through her involvement with the Malvern Hills Protection Society and helped pr ...

, number 14 on the Green Party's list.

Unsuccessful list candidates

;Notes: # These party list members would eventually enter parliament in the term as other list MPs elected resigned from parliament. # These party list members have since resigned.

Changes in MPs

In total, 25 new MPs were elected to Parliament, and three former MPs returned. New MPs: Scott Simpson, Maggie Barry, Mike Sabin, Ian McKelvie, Mark Mitchell, Simon O'Connor, Alfred Ngaro, Jian Yang, Paul Goldsmith, David Clark, Rino Tirikatene, Megan Woods, Andrew Little, Eugenie Sage, Jan Logie, Steffan Browning, Denise Roche, Holly Walker, Julie Anne Genter, Tracey Martin, Andrew Williams, Richard Prosser, Denis O'Rourke, Asenati Taylor, Brendan Horan Returning MPs: John Banks, Winston Peters, Barbara Stewart Defeated MPs: Paul Quinn, Steve Chadwick, Stuart Nash, Carmel Sepuloni, Rick Barker, Rahui Katene Defeated MPs who later returned during the 50th Parliament Aaron Gilmore, Carol Beaumont, Kelvin Davis

Election expenses

The Electoral Commission released party electoral expense returns on 21 March 2012, stating how much each party spent on campaigning between 26 August and 25 November 2011. Candidate only expenses were excluded. Of note in the party expenses was the $1.88 million spent by the Conservative Party, spending more than but gaining less than one-tenth of the votes of the Labour Party. Translated into dollars spent per party vote gained, the Conservatives spent $31.71 per vote, compared to Labour's $2.91 and National's $2.19.

Post-election events

Changes in party leadership

For the ACT party the mediocre election results on 26 November 2011 (1.1% of the party vote, with no list MPs, 1 electorate MP) resulted in

Don Brash Donald Thomas Brash (born 24 September 1940) is a former New Zealand politician who was Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the New Zealand National Party from October 2003 to November 2006, and the Leader of ACT New Zealand from April to No ...

tendering his resignation as leader, stating that he took full responsibility for the party's poor performance. On 29 November the leader of the Labour party

and the deputy leader

Annette King Dame Annette Faye King (née Robinson, born 13 September 1947) is a former New Zealand politician. She served as Deputy Leader of the New Zealand Labour Party and Deputy Leader of the Opposition from 2008 to 2011, and from 2014 until 1 March 20 ...

tendered their resignations to a meeting of the caucus, effective on Tuesday 13 December 2011. After a fortnight-long leadership campaign and election,

David Shearer David James Shearer (born 28 July 1957) is a New Zealand United Nations worker and politician. He was a member of the New Zealand Parliament for the Labour Party from 2009 to 2016, serving as Leader of the Opposition from 2011 to 2013. Shear ...

, with deputy Grant Robertson, won Labour caucus support over the ticket of

David Cunliffe David Richard Cunliffe (born 30 April 1963) is a New Zealand management consultant and former politician who was Leader of the New Zealand Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from September 2013 to September 2014. He was Member of Parl ...

and

Nanaia Mahuta Nanaia Cybele Mahuta (born 21 August 1970) is a New Zealand politician who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hauraki-Waikato and serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Sixth Labour Government since 2020. She is also the Minister ...

.Shearer routs Cunliffe for Labour leadership: Duncan Garner

, 13 December 2011. Retrieved: 13 December 2011

References

External links

Election broadcast

* * * * * * *
Election 2011
Coverage from 3 News {{New Zealand elections November 2011 events in New Zealand