National poised for victory in Maungakiekie

Denise Lee looks set to win the Maungakiekie electorate.
Denise Lee looks set to win the Maungakiekie electorate. Photo credit: Twitter

National's Denise Lee seemed assured of victory in the key Maungakiekie seat, with few votes left to count and a 1844-vote advantage over Labour's Priyanca Radhakrishnan.

Rising young Greens star Chloe Swarbrick had only 2789 votes. but with her party earning 5.6 percent of the party vote, at 23, she is still poised to enter Parliament as a list MP, becoming the youngest member in 42 years.

Whoever won Maungakiekie would become a new MP and the electorate was considered a bellwether seat that reflects the general mood of the nation as a whole.

Labour held the seat from 1999-2005, before National grabbed it and has held it since.