![\"Peeni](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/peeni-henare-QE5DX2ODMRBGXGVU5B2DU7XOVE.jpg\")
<\/p>\nOriini Kaipara has taken the T\u0101maki Makaurau byelection for Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori with rival Labour’s Peeni Henare conceding this evening.<\/p>\n
Early results from the byelection had former broadcaster Kaipara in a commanding lead.<\/p>\n
With 88% of the votes counted, Kaipara had 5463 in her favour with Henare trailing at 2797.<\/p>\n
Eighty-four polling booths were open today from 9am until 7pm to collect the last of the votes. <\/p>\n
The Electoral Commission has said turnout had been low, despite early voting opening on August 25, with just under 5000 ballots cast by Thursday. <\/p>\n
Last day of polling wasn\u2019t\u00a0helped by spring showers and cool winds across the city.\u00a0 (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
The T\u0101maki Makaurau electorate had approximately 44,000 voters enrolled, according to the Electoral Commission. At 88% of the votes counted, there had been 8500 returns.<\/p>\n
Henare and Kaipara were considered front-runners in the byelection triggered by the death of Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori MP, Takutai Tarsh Kemp. Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori confirmed Kaipara as its candidate on July 11.<\/p>\n
Henare held the seat between 2014 and 2023 until Kemp, who ran for Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori, ousted him by a margin of just 42 votes. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Peeni Henare. (Source: Photosport)<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Electoral Commission confirmed it was looking into a social media post by Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori MP Takuta Ferris on Saturday morning, the last day of polling in the byelection.<\/p>\n
Ferris posted an photograph of himself holding a punnet of what appeared to be meat-loaded fries, with words urging people to vote. He was pictured wearing a Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori branded puffer jacket.<\/p>\n
The Ferris post was forwarded to tne Electoral Commission who responded: “Kia ora, thanks for letting us know. We’re looking into it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oriini Kaipara has taken the T\u0101maki Makaurau byelection for Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori with rival Labour’s Peeni Henare conceding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[51,42,8028,4432,43,135,8027,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-6168","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-auckland","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-labour-party","11":"tag-maori-issues","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-te-pati-maori","15":"tag-top-news","16":"tag-top-stories","17":"tag-topnews","18":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}