New Zealand has woken on Sunday to the closest result of the MMP era. Labour edged National on the party vote, 29.36 percent to 29.21 percent, yet National finished with 42 seats to Labour’s 36 because it won 42 electorates. National, ACT and NZ First hold 67 seats in a record 131 seat Parliament, one above a majority, with about 700,000 special votes to count before the official result on 27 November. Christopher Luxon told supporters it was “too close to call” but National had “a pathway to forming the next government”. Chris Hipkins said New Zealand had spoken but “it may take us a little bit longer to figure out exactly what it is that you’ve said”.

In Coromandel there was no such doubt about the seat. Scott Simpson was returned with 22,004 votes, 54.5 percent of those counted, 14,932 ahead of Labour’s Glen Bennett on 7,072. His share actually rose from 53.2 percent in 2023.

The party vote told a different story. National’s share in Coromandel fell from 42.83 percent to 34.44 percent, a drop of 8.4 points that matches the party’s slide nationwide. The votes did not cross to the left. ACT climbed from 11.84 to 16.32 percent and NZ First from 10.38 to 15.89 percent, so the three coalition parties together lifted from 65.1 to 66.7 percent of the electorate’s party vote.

Labour was flat at 19.36 percent, the Greens edged up to 8.02 percent and Opportunity grew from 1.08 to 4.33 percent.

The gap between Simpson’s candidate vote and National’s party vote has doubled from 10 points to 20. Coromandel voters kept their local MP and sent their party vote to his coalition partners.

Scott Simpson told CFM that he stayed up into the early hours of the morning watching as the results came through and was truly humbled by the support he and the party received from Coromandel voters. He said that now it was a matter of waiting for the dust to settle to see what comes from last night's vote and he is determined to continue to represent the people of Coromandel in the best way he can.

Note: 2026 figures are election night only and exclude special votes. Official result 27 November.