Tirikatene holds Te Tai Tonga

Rino Tirikatene has comfortably held his seat in Te Tai Tonga over Maori Party candidate Takuta Ferris. 

With 98.1% of the votes counted, Tirikatene (10,785) took more than twice the votes of his nearest competitor Ferris (5,305). 

It was a similar margin of victory to 2017, when Tirikatene beat Matiria Turei of the Green Party. 

Party votes went overwhelmingly to Labour (59.5%) with the Green party far behind in second place with 11.9%.