Ōtaki (New Zealand electorate)

In the 1892 electoral redistribution, population shift to the North Island required the transfer of one seat from the South Island to the north. The resulting ripple effect saw every electorate established in 1890 have its boundaries altered, and eight electorates were established for the first time, including Otaki.^[1] Otaki was first contested in the 1893 election, and the first member for Otaki was James Wilson, who held the seat for one term until 1896. It was then won by Henry Augustus Field and then, after Henry's death, by his brother William Hughes Field. William Field, a Liberal-turn-independent-turn-Reform, held it for a total of 32 years, from 1900 to 1935. Field lost the electorate in 1911 to John Robertson of the Social Democratic Party (who had been nominated by the flax-workers union), but won it back in 1914.

The seat was abolished in 1972, and Allan McCready, who was the incumbent, instead stood for and won the Manawatu electorate.

Otaki was recreated ahead of the change to mixed-member proportional (MMP) voting in 1996, by combining two bellwether seats: the northern half of Kapiti with the entire Horowhenua seat. Since its recreation the boundaries have been left largely unaltered, though after the 2007 boundary review a macron was added to the name and it is now spelled Ōtaki. The first MP for Otaki since its recreation was Judy Keall, who won by less than a thousand votes in 1996 before a more decisive victory in 1999.^[2] In 2002, her former electorate assistant Darren Hughes won the seat, becoming the youngest member of the House of Representatives. His 2002 majority was slashed to just 382 at the 2005 election by former Horowhenua District councillor Nathan Guy. In a 2008 rematch, Guy tipped out Hughes by 1,354 votes; Hughes returned to Parliament off the Labour Party list.

Nathan Guy won Ōtaki for National at every election since 2008; at the 2017 election Guy won 50.3% of the vote compared with the second-place Rob McCann getting 35.4%. Guy announced he would be resigning at the 2020 election,^[3] and National have selected Tim Costley as its replacement candidate.^[4]

In the 2020 election, Terisa Ngobi returned the seat to Labour in a tight contest, winning 17,953 of the votes compared to Tim Costley's 16,683 votes based on preliminary results.^[5][6]

Unless otherwise stated, all MPs' terms began and ended at general elections.

Key

  Independent  Liberal  Reform  Labour  Labour  National

Members of Parliament elected from party lists in elections where that person also unsuccessfully contested the electorate. Unless otherwise stated, all MPs' terms began and ended at general elections.

2023 general election: Otaki[7]
Notes:		Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	National	Tim Costley		22,145	50.23	+8.96	16,520	37.08	+10.65
	Labour	N Terisa Ngobi		15,874	36.01	-11.80	15,014	34.94	-17.28
	Green	Ali Muhammad		2,946	6.68	+2.01	4,703	10.56	+4.15
	ACT	Sean Rush		1,327	3.01	+1.00	3,306	7.42	+0.28
	New Zealand Loyal	Bryan Ten-Have		1,078	2.45	—	637	1.43	—
	Not A Party	Bob Wessex		75	0.17	—
	NZ First						3,437	7.72	+5.07
	Opportunities						692	1.55	+0.49
	Te Pāti Māori						510	1.14	+0.83
	NewZeal						210	0.47	+0.16 [b]
	Legalise Cannabis						158	0.35	+0.04
	Freedoms NZ						137	0.31	—
	Animal Justice						89	0.20	—
	New Conservative						52	0.12	−1.26
	DemocracyNZ						48	0.11	—
	Women's Rights						34	0.08	—
	Leighton Baker Party						17	0.04	—
Informal votes				640			270
Total valid votes				44,085			44,549
	National gain from Labour		Majority	6,271	14.22	+7.79

2017 general election: Otaki[9]
Notes:		Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	National	Y Nathan Guy		20,725	50.31	−4.49	19,187	46.02	−2.69
	Labour	Rob McCann		14,569	35.37	+0.90	15,014	34.94	+10.29
	Green	Sam Ferguson		2,167	5.26	−1.17	2,358	5.65	−3.74
	NZ First	Romuald Edward Rudzki		1,680	4.07	—	3,421	8.20	−1.69
	Opportunities	Piri-Hira Tukapua		1,051	2.55	—	910	2.18	—
	Independent	Sam Jennings		504	1.22	—
	ACT	Wayne Desmond Grattan		105	0.25	—	163	0.39	+0.10
	Māori Party						156	0.37	−0.07
	Legalise Cannabis						79	0.18	−0.18
	Conservative						69	0.16	−4.22
	Ban 1080						44	0.10	−0.06
	United Future						25	0.05	—
	People's Party						24	0.05	—
	Outdoors						19	0.04	—
	Mana						9	0.02	−0.62[c]
	Democrats						7	0.01	−0.04
	Internet						3	0.007	−0.633[d]
Informal votes				386			198
Total valid votes				41,187			41,686
	National hold		Majority	6,156	14.95	-5.38

2014 general election: Ōtaki[10]
Notes:		Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	National	Y Nathan Guy		20,980	54.80	+3.23	18,854	48.71	+1.92
	Labour	Rob McCann		13,198	34.47	−3.01	9,543	24.65	−4.94
	Green	Maddy Drew		2,462	6.43	+1.72	3,635	9.39	+0.21
	Conservative	Anne Lovelock		913	2.38	+0.65	1,695	4.38	+1.19
	Independent	Amanda Vickers		203	0.53	+0.53
	Independent	Frederick Macdonald		118	0.31	+0.31
	NZ First						3,827	9.89	+1.77
	Internet Mana						249	0.64	+0.43[e]
	Māori Party						169	0.44	−0.12
	Legalise Cannabis						138	0.36	−0.07
	ACT						111	0.29	−0.38
	United Future						74	0.19	−0.52
	Ban 1080						61	0.16	+0.16
	Democrats						19	0.05	+0.01
	Independent Coalition						19	0.05	+0.05
	Civilian						12	0.03	+0.03
	Focus						6	0.02	+0.02
Informal votes				412			298
Total valid votes				38,286			38,710
Turnout				38,710	82.49	+3.23
	National hold		Majority	7,782	20.33	+6.24

2011 general election: Ōtaki[11]
Notes:		Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	National	Y Nathan Guy		19,151	51.57	+2.90	17,609	46.79	+2.02
	Labour	Peter Foster		13,920	37.48	-7.70	11,137	29.59	-7.36
	Green	Michael Gilchrist		1,750	4.71	+2.06	3,612	9.60	+3.96
	NZ First	David Scott		1,122	3.02	+1.02	3,057	8.12	+2.63
	Conservative	John Stephen Ryersson		644	1.73	+1.73	1,202	3.19	+3.19
	Legalise Cannabis	Fred MacDonald		253	0.68	+0.68	162	0.43	+0.14
	ACT	Peter McCaffrey		115	0.31	-0.23	253	0.67	-1.92
	United Future	Diane Brown		110	0.30	-0.09	266	0.71	-0.31
	Independent	Philip Dean Taueki		73	0.20	+0.20
	Māori Party						210	0.56	-0.26
	Mana						80	0.21	+0.21
	Libertarianz						19	0.05	+0.02
	Democrats						15	0.04	+0.01
	Alliance						11	0.03	-0.04
Informal votes				573			292
Total valid votes				37,138			37,633
	National hold		Majority	5,231	14.09	+10.60

Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 47,483^[12]

2008 general election: Ōtaki[13]
Notes:		Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	National	Nathan Guy		18,885	48.67	+3.91	17,534	44.77	+3.10
	Labour	N Darren Hughes		17,531	45.18	-0.58	14,472	36.95	+4.72
	Green	Jim Kebbell		1,029	2.65		2,207	5.64	1.09
	NZ First	David John Scott		778	2.01		2,153	5.50	-1.29
	Progressive	Josie Pagani		221	0.57		453	1.16	-0.43
	ACT	Peter McCaffrey		210	0.54		1,014	2.59	+1.60
	United Future	Diane Brown		148	0.38	-1.25	397	1.01	-2.34
	Māori Party						321	0.82	+0.08
	Bill and Ben						177	0.45
	Kiwi						165	0.42
	Legalise Cannabis						115	0.29	+0.06
	Family Party						84	0.21
	Alliance						28	0.07	-0.13
	Libertarianz						12	0.03	+0.01
	Democrats						10	0.03	-0.02
	Pacific						9	0.02
	Workers Party						6	0.02
	RONZ						5	0.01	±0.00
	RAM						0	0.00
Informal votes				186			111
Total valid votes				38,802			39,162
	National gain from Labour		Majority	1,354	3.49

2005 general election: Otaki[14]
Notes:		Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	Labour	Y Darren Hughes		17,556	45.76	-7.27	16,131	41.67
	National	Nathan Guy		17,174	44.76	+13.79	15,174	39.20
	NZ First	Chris Perry		1,043	2.72		2,630	6.79
	Green	Nick Fisher		1,022	2.66		1,761	4.55
	United Future	Diane Brown		611	1.59		1,297	3.35
	Māori Party	Richard Orzecki		353	0.92		286	0.74
	Progressive	Russell Franklin		303	0.79		614	1.59
	ACT	Simon Ewing-Jarvie		163	0.42		383	0.99
	Alliance	Margaret Jeune		97	0.25		78	0.20
	Direct Democracy	Robert Atack		47	0.12		7	0.02
	Destiny						154	0.40
	Legalise Cannabis						88	0.23
	Family Rights						54	0.14
	Christian Heritage						37	0.10
	Democrats						21	0.05
	99 MP						14	0.04
	One NZ						14	0.04
	Libertarianz						9	0.02
	RONZ						5	0.01
Informal votes				242			134
Total valid votes				38,369			38,707
	Labour hold		Majority	382	1.00	-21.07

Refer to Candidates in the New Zealand general election 1999 by electorate#Otaki for a list of candidates.

• McRobie, Alan (1989). Electoral Atlas of New Zealand. Wellington: GP Books. ISBN 0-477-01384-8.
• Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [First published in 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.

• Electorate Profile Parliamentary Library