27 Nov 2011

Three seats changed hands, one to be decided

2:51 am on 27 November 2011

Three electorates changed hands on election night and one remained to be decided.

Labour's Damien O'Connor won West Coast-Tasman from National's Chris Auchinvole with a majority of 2287.

Labour won the Maori seat of Te Tai Tonga, with Rino Tirikatene gaining 1445 more votes than the sitting Maori Party MP Rahui Katene.

And National's Kate Wilkinson won Waimakariri from Labour's Clayton Cosgrove by 395 votes.

Christchurch Central

The contest for the Christchurch Central electorate was tied on election night and remains to be decided.

Sitting Labour MP Brendon Burns and National candidate Nicky Wagner both had 10,493 votes. Special votes are still to be counted.

It was also a close race between the two candidates in 2008 when Mr Burns won with a majority of 935 votes.