Hawke's Bay stays true to blue | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

Hawke's Bay remains blue for another three-year political term with voters selecting National candidates in the general seats in Saturday's 2011 election.

National's Craig Foss, Chris Tremain and John Hayes return for their third terms as MPs for the Tukituki, Napier and Wairarapa seats respectively.

Mr Tremain's majority was cut to 3382 votes compared with his winning margin of 9018 recorded at the 2008 election, the result of some hard campaign work by his main opponent, Labour's Stuart Nash.

Mr Foss has increased his winning margin significantly over the past three elections, this time winning by just over 9000, while Mr Hayes' winning margin was 6695, slightly below his 2008 result.

The only Labour flag left flying in the region is that of incumbent Parekura Horomia, who holds the Maori seat of Ikaroa-Rawhiti for a fifth term, which he has indicated will be his last.

Labour's Napier list MP Mr Nash failed to win the seat from Mr Tremain and Labour's poor showing in the party vote meant he missed out on returning as a list MP and is now looking for a job.

Labour's challenger for the Tukituki seat, Julia Haydon-Carr, said she'd be back to stand in the 2014 elections if her party agreed.

The Maori Party's candidate for Ikaroa-Rawhiti, Na Raihania of Hastings, would also seek his party's approval to return for the next election. Like Mr Nash, he's looking for a job, after quitting work last year to focus on his campaign.

In the party vote, National was most popular in the general seats with 16,868 votes in Wairarapa, 16,543 in Tukituki and 15,386 in Napier, while in Ikaroa-Rawhiti Labour held its ground as the preferred party with 7936 votes.

A million eligible New Zealanders did not bother to vote in Saturday's election, producing the lowest turnout in percentage terms in 120 years.

Turnout dropped by just over 90,000, from 79.5 per cent of those on the rolls in 2008 to 73.8 per cent.

This was the lowest percentage turnout since 1887, when 67.1 per cent of those on the rolls voted.

Only an estimated 93.2 per cent of the 3,276,000 people who were eligible to vote were enrolled, so the 2,254,581 people who did cast their votes (including special votes) leaves just over 1 million who stayed at home.