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Labour steal back Chch seat from quake minister

Author
Chelsea Daniels ,
Publish Date
Sun, 24 Sep 2017, 7:31AM
Nicky Wagner (Getty Images)
Nicky Wagner (Getty Images)

Labour steal back Chch seat from quake minister

Author
Chelsea Daniels ,
Publish Date
Sun, 24 Sep 2017, 7:31AM

The Labour Party have seized back the Christchurch Central electorate in possibly the city's most exciting contest.

Labour candidate Duncan Webb won the seat by just over 2200 votes from incumbent Nicky Wagner, who is Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration.

Christchurch Central was a Labour stronghold since the 1940s, until the 2011 election when Wagner took over.

Webb says one of the reasons he got involved in politics was the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake.

"The earthquake has shown a whole lot of issues and problems that we need to address in Christchurch, and I'm so excited that I'm going to be part of helping and trying to solve those issues," he said.

Wagner blamed the decline in the Green vote in the Central electorate as the reason for her shock loss.

"I did exactly the same as last time, got all the National votes, plus a little bit more for me as a candidate so I've done what I can," she said.

"They've given us the same number of votes, it's just that the other votes haven't split the other way."

Earthquake Commission minister Gerry Brownlee retained his seat his in Ilam from independent challenger Raf Manji by more than 7000 votes.

 

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