Mr Beetham has reduced majority

Press, 4 December 1981, Page 2

Mr Beetham has reduced majority

PA Wanganui The leader of the Social Credit Political League (Mr Beetham) has had his elec-tion-night majority for the Rangitikei seat reduced by 805 votes after the discovery of a calculation error. The Rangitikei returning officer, Mr Denis Pitt, said yesterday that 805 votes for the National Party's candidate. Mr Paul Bardwell, had inadvertently not been counted on election night. This meant that Mr Bardwell’s votes now totalled 7394. ' He believed that the mistake had happened when he had pushed a “total” instead of a “sub-total” button on a calculator while he had added Mr Bardwell’s votes. The error was found during a recount on Wednesday

and means that Mr Beetham's majority of 3071 on election night has fallen to 2266. Mr Beetham has 9660 votes. The recount boosted the election-night tally of the Labour Party’s candidate. Mr Mark O’Connor, to 1832 votes, an increase of two and the Values Party candidate, Mr Denis Hocking, gained an extra five votes for a total of 175. Mr Pitt said that the latest figures were “purely an amendment to the pollingnight figures.” The final count would not be known until some time next week. Special votes and overseas votes still had to be counted. So far, 1236 special votes and 79 overseas votes had arrived. He expected about 1600 special votes in all.