Gisborne seat regained by National after error

Press, 2 December 1981, Page 1

Gisborne seat regained by National after error

NZPA chief political reporter Wellington The National Party yesterday regained the Gisborne seat to move to a clear Parliamentary majority on preliminary election results.

The seat hangs by a fourvote thread after electoral officials corrected electionnight counting errors which had given an extra 100 votes to Labour and given Mr Allan Wallbank a 96-vote majority over the sitting member of Parliament, Mr R. L. Bell. In a day of confusion and change, election-night counting errors were discovered in three other key electorates — Helensville and Eden, making both more vulnerable to the Labour Party, and in Taupo, increasing National’s majority from 16 to 24. The final outcome of Saturday’s General Election remained in the balance last evening hanging on continuing vote checks and on crucial special votes. The Gisborne reversal was a bitter blow to both the Labour and Social Credit parties. If the seat is secured for National by special votes, as is now widely expected, and no other seat changes hands, National will have emerged from the election with an absolute majority — holding 47 seats to Labour’s 43 and Social Credit’s two. The return of the seat to National meant the sudden evaporation for Social Credit of the balance of power that the league’s two members of Parliament had seemed likely to hold. For the Labour Party it has distanced dreams of gaining a 45-45 tie with National after special votes are counted next week. If the result stays, National will have a one-vote

majority in Parliament over the combined strength of Labour and Social Credit, once a Speaker has been elected. The day’s upsets leave four seats with preliminary majorities of less than 75 votes, all now held by National. They are Mr Bell’s tenuous four votes in Gisborne; Taupo, where Mr R. N. McClay has 24 votes over the defeated Labour member of Parliament, Mr J. W. Ridley; Helensville, where the sitting member Mr D. M. J. Jones yesterday lost a further two votes to leave his preliminary majority at 42; and Eden, where the Minister of Immigration (Mr Malcolm) had his majority cut to 72 votes after the discovery of counting errors. The reversal of the Gisborne result, has boosted National’s confidence and upset the Labour leader (Mr Rowling). The Chief Electoral Officer, Mr Peter Horne, said yesterday that the confusion was understandable “human error.’’ “The service we provide on election night can only give interim figures,” he said. Returning officers were under pressure to get results out quickly and “this does leave scope for errors.” They were "unfortunate” but would be picked up before the final result was declared. The final count would be guaranteed accurate, he said. The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) said he was “delighted” to regain Gisborne. The result had made him

more confident about the special vote count. The revised count in Gisborne has left Mr Bell’s election-night tally of 7348 unchanged, but deducted 100 votes from Mr Wallbank to leave him with 7344 votes. In a similar error in Eden, Mr Malcolm has found his majority reduced from a safe 285 on election night to a shaky 72 votes, a margin Labour strategists feel could be overcome With the help of special votes cast by absentee students at the teachers’ college in the electorate. However, Mr Malcolm was yesterday still outwardly confident.

In Helensville, a revised count cut Mr Jones’s 44-vote election night majority to 42 after two votes were added to the 7370 election night tally of Labour’s Mr J. A. Elder. Further errors were discovered in Taupo where Mr McClay gained another eight votes to put him 24 votes clear of Mr Ridley. The situation in Eden is highly confused. Special votes there in 1978 were tied at 860 apiece between National and Labour. ' However, the National Party there has also alleged plural voting on a large scale, allegations which have yet to be resolved.

With the balance of power now taken from his hands, at least for the moment, the Social Credit leader (Mr Beetham) has postponed his meeting with Mr Rowling. Mr Rowling said the meeting, scheduled for today, was still warranted. However, Mr Beetham said: “I have decided that taking into consideration all the circumstances applicable it would be wiser to await the final outcome in three uncertain seats before meeting Mr Rowling’s request to have a discussion with me, and I have informed Mr Rowling accordingly.” Mr Beetham hit back angrily over suggestions that the league was a “fantasy” party. Mr Beetham said the comments made on Monday by the Labour Party president, Mr J. P. Anderton, were “a classic example of irrational emotionalism.” “Instead of indulging in emotional irrelevancies and shooting off his mouth over matters which are none of his constitutional concern, the Labour Party president ... would do his party and his country a much better service by keeping his mouth shut,” Mr Beetham said.