1969 New Zealand general election

Template:Short description Template:Use New Zealand English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox election The 1969 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to determine the shape of Parliament's 36th term. It saw the Second National Government headed by Prime Minister Keith Holyoake of the National Party win a fourth consecutive term. This is the most recent election where an incumbent government won a fourth term in office.

1967 electoral redistribution

Through an amendment in the Electoral Act in 1965, the number of electorates in the South Island was fixed at 25, an increase of one since the 1962 electoral redistribution.Template:Sfn It was accepted that through the more rapid population growth in the North Island, the number of its electorates would continue to increase, and to keep proportionality, three new electorates were allowed for in the 1967 electoral redistribution for the next election.Template:Sfn In the North Island, five electorates were newly created (Template:NZ electorate link, Template:NZ electorate link, Template:NZ electorate link, Template:NZ electorate link, and Template:NZ electorate link) and one electorate was reconstituted (Template:NZ electorate link) while three electorates were abolished (Template:NZ electorate link, Template:NZ electorate link, and Template:NZ electorate link).Template:Sfn In the South Island, three electorates were newly created (Template:NZ electorate link, Template:NZ electorate link, and Template:NZ electorate link) and one electorate was reconstituted (Template:NZ electorate link) while three electorates were abolished (Template:NZ electorate link, Template:NZ electorate link, and Template:NZ electorate link).Template:Sfn The overall effect of the required changes was highly disruptive to existing electorates, with all but three electorates (Template:NZ electorate link, Template:NZ electorate link, and Template:NZ electorate link) having their boundaries altered.Template:Sfn These changes came into effect with the 1969 election.Template:Sfn

The increase to 84 electorates was the first since the 1902 electoral distribution.Template:Sfn Due to the fixed number of South Island electorates, the number of North Island electorates has increased in every subsequent election until the introduction of mixed-member proportional representation (MMP) for the Template:NZ election link, which fixed the number of seats at 120.Template:Sfn

MPs retiring in 1969

Four National MPs and five Labour MPs intended to retire at the end of the 35th Parliament.

Party		Name	Electorate
rowspan=4 style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	National	Gordon Grieve	Awarua
Arthur Kinsella		Hauraki
Jack George		Otago Central
Jack Scott		Rodney
rowspan=5 style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	Labour	Robert Macfarlane	Christchurch Central
Ritchie Macdonald		Grey Lynn
Arnold Nordmeyer		Island Bay
Mabel Howard		Sydenham
Iriaka Rātana		Western Maori

Sir Walter Nash MP for Hutt had announced he would retire at the end of the term in 1969, but he died on 4 June 1968 triggering a by-election instead.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Election

The election was held on 29 November. Turnout was 88.94%. The total number of MPs had increased to 84,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> with at least 3 of the 4 new seats likely Labour seats. 55 and 25 electorates were in the North Island and South Island, respectively, plus the 4 Māori electorates.Template:Sfn

Results

National pulled off a cliff-hanger victory. National won 45 seats, and Labour won 39 seats, though Labour's share of the vote was only 1% behind National. The Social Credit Party lost its only seat in Parliament: Hobson, formerly held by then party leader Vernon Cracknell.

Despite the hopes of a reinvigorated Labour party under Norman Kirk, Labour was overconfident, started too late, and did not win in Auckland. Relations with the Federation of Labour and the unions were not good, and an industrial dispute on the ship Wainui cost Labour three Auckland seats according to Kirk. Labour MP Warren Freer personally believed that "had it not been for the seamen's strike during the election period, we could have won".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In Template:NZ electorate link, Labour was first on election night but lost when special votes were counted.

File:1969 nz parliament.svg
Election results
Party		Candidates	Total votes	Percentage	Seats won	Change
width=5 bgcolor=Template:Party color|	National	84	605,960	45.2	45	+1
bgcolor=Template:Party color|	Labour	84	592,055	44.2	39	+4
bgcolor=Template:Party color|	Social Credit	84	121,576	9.1	0	−1
bgcolor=Template:Party color|	Country Party	15	6,715	0.5	0	±0
bgcolor=Template:Party color|	Communist	4	418	0.03	0	±0
bgcolor=Template:Party color|	Independents	36	8,457	0.6	0	±0
Total		303	1,340,168		84

Votes summary

Template:Bar box <section begin="Electorate results" />The table below shows the results of the 1969 general election:

Key

Template:NZ electorate result start |-

|colspan=8 style="background-color:#FFDEAD" | General electorates

|- Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result new Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result new Template:NZ electorate result hold |-

| Hauraki
| style="background-color:Template:Party color;" |
| style="text-align:center;" | Arthur Kinsella
| style="background-color:Template:Party color;" |
| style="text-align:center;background-color:Template:New Zealand National Party/meta/shading;" | Leo Schultz
| style="text-align:right;" | 2,121
| style="background-color:Template:Party color;" |
| style="text-align:center;" | Dorothy Jelicich

|- Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result new Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result new Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result new Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result new Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result new Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result new Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result new Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result new |-

|colspan=8 style="background-color:#FFDEAD" | Māori electorates

|- Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change |} Table footnotes: Template:Reflist<section end="Electorate results" />

References

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