Preliminary results indicate the strategy has contributed to an overhang, with National winning 42 electorates despite receiving just 29.2% of the party vote. Together with other overhang seats, including those arising from Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori\u2019s five electorate victories, the preliminary allocation produces a 131-seat Parliament.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the Herald, Mowbray said the results show that, without the strategy, National \u201cwouldn\u2019t even be in discussion\u201d with its coalition partners, who have both increased their party vote share since 2023.<\/p>\n
Harry Mowbray, a wealthy businessman and political campaigner whose children founded toy company Zuru, was a prominent backer of the vote-splitting campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe horrifying thing was that [National] still don\u2019t recognise it,\u201d Mowbray said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was over a 20% swing. So that\u2019s huge. It is the only thing that has saved the centre-right in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mowbray said he and Don Brash, among others, had been accused by National\u2019s Gerry Brownlee and Chris Bishop of \u201cplaying with matches and blowing fires\u201d by promoting the vote-splitting strategy during the campaign.<\/p>\n
Brownlee and Bishop \u2013 with senior MPs Nicola Willis and Paul Goldsmith \u2013 now look likely to be out of their jobs<\/a>, with National securing just 29.4% of the party vote against 42 electorate seats.<\/p>\n Mowbray thought National\u2019s criticism of the strategy, including the party\u2019s alleged complaint to the Electoral Commission<\/a> over his Split Your Vote website, had been unfounded, but he was \u201cvery happy\u201d the media coverage had instead spread their message further.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re trying to help this lot, but they\u2019re just looking in the rearview mirror at the electorates that they\u2019ve lost … I don\u2019t know how we actually get them to do the arithmetic but, yeah, it\u2019s mind-blowing,\u201d Mowbray said.<\/p>\n \u201cMy biggest disappointment is that every party on the right or the centre-right, their whole campaign was about self-interest.<\/p>\n \u201cDavid [Seymour] should not have been trying to win Epsom and T\u0101maki. And Chris Luxon should not have been trying to save Nicola, because it was going to be impossible to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Luxon refrained from addressing the vote-splitting campaign and whether he thought it had worked, telling reporters today<\/a> he was \u201cfocused on going forward\u201d.<\/p>\nNational won 42 electorate seats but just 29.2% of the party vote, while Act and NZ First have both increased their party vote share since 2023. Preliminary results now point to an 11-seat overhang in a 131-seat Parliament. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n