With the win of National party candidates Tama Potaka and Ryan Hamilton, Hamilton city is seeing blue again after the election 2023 results came in late last night. Incumbent MP Tim van de Molen has also retained his seat in the Waikato electorate.
While Hamilton wrested the Hamilton East seat – traditionally held by the National party before losing to Labour in 2020, Tama Potaka retained the Hamilton West seat he had won in December 2022 by-election.
All these three National candidates had comfortable leads in their respective electorates right from start of counting.
Ryan Hamilton – Hamilton City Councillor since 2018, secured 14,318 votes against 10,355 of Labour’s Georgie Dansey, winning with a margin of 3,963.
For the city councillor and owner of a small business, Hamilton will be entering the Parliament for the first time in his new role as a MP.
During his campaign, he had indicated his strong commitment to tackle rising costs and crime, and was keen to “advocate for the city at a higher level”.
Incumbent Hamilton West MP, Tama Potaka has retained his seat winning with a margin of 5,397 votes. With 100 per cent of the electorate votes counted, Potaka received 14,348 votes while his main rival Labour’s Myra Williamson secured 8,951 votes.
Former chief executive of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, Tama Potaka is heading to Wellington for the second time as the MP for Hamilton West after winning December 202 by-election. He had secured 6974 votes winning by 2,433 votes.
Homelessness is a big issue confronting Potaka who was National’s spokesman for Māori development and associate spokesperson Housing. Hamilton West electorate has a high Māori (25 per cent) and Pacific (10 per cent) population makeup.
Labour party’s Georgie Dansey conceded to Potaka in Decemebr by-election, and now she has conceded to Ryan Hamilton after she switched electorate from Hamilton West to Hamilton East.
However, there has been a significant jump in the number of votes she received in the by-election. From 4,541 in December, she received 10,355 votes this year. However, ranked 31 on Labour’s list, she has missed the List seat.
Tamahere’s Tim van de Molen retained his seat with a spectacular margin of 15,588 votes having polled 22,692 votes against his closest rival Labour’s Jamie Toko who received 7104 votes.
Unfortunately, van de Molen will miss a berth in the new National cabinet as he was found to be in contempt of Parliament a couple of months ago and his party leader (and now the newly-elected PM) Christopher Luxon had then decided not to include van de Molen in his first Cabinet.
– from NewsViews
