Christchurch East by-election, 2013
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| Turnout | 13,726 | |||||||||||||||
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Christchurch East electorate boundaries used for the by-election
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A by-election was held in the New Zealand electorate of Christchurch East on 30 November 2013. The seat was vacated following the resignation of Lianne Dalziel of the Labour Party from parliament, who contested and won the Christchurch mayoralty in October 2013.
The electorate is regarded as a safe Labour seat; the party has, apart from the 50-year gap when the electorate was abolished, held the electorate since the 1922 election, although significant population changes since the 2011 Christchurch earthquake had made this allegiance to Labour less certain. Prior to the election, National's top party official in Canterbury had conceded that the by-election was "very, very hard for [National] to win". The by-election was won by Labour's Poto Williams, who prior to her selection as Labour's candidate was virtually unknown.
Following months of speculation, The Press reported on 20 April 2013 that Lianne Dalziel would challenge Bob Parker for the Christchurch mayoralty. On 19 June Dalziel formally confirmed that she would contest the mayoralty, also announcing that she would resign from Parliament, which would cause a by-election in the Christchurch East electorate. Dalziel's resignation took effect on 11 October, the day before the announcement of the mayoralty election-results.
Ten candidates were nominated.
The Labour Party nominated Poto Williams for the by-election. In a surprise move, the now former Labour leader David Shearer appointed former MP Jim Anderton as the party's by-election campaign manager. Anderton, who was first elected to Parliament in 1984 for Labour in Sydenham, left the party in 1989 over policy differences and, until his retirement as MP in 2011, led his own parties (the NewLabour Party and Jim Anderton's Progressive Party). The Labour Party nomination process started in August and Deon Swiggs was the first person to declare his candidacy. Swiggs, a 26-year-old who developed a profile following the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, has been a Labour supporter since age 15. A day later, James Caygill confirmed his candidacy to represent the Labour Party. He is the son of former Minister of Finance David Caygill. The third person to join the Labour candidacy race was Tina Lomax, who is the principal of Kingslea School and who, from 2004 to 2010, was a Burwood-Pegasus Community Board member. Karen Hayes is a registered nurse and midwife, Christina Laalaai-Tausa is a PhD candidate at the University of Canterbury, and the sixth candidate was Poto Williams, the regional manager of St John of God Hauora Trust.Clayton Cosgrove, an existing list MP who had lost the Waimakariri electorate to National's Kate Wilkinson at the last election, had considered standing in the by-election, but in the end decided not to put his name forward for the Labour nomination.
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