Epsom (New Zealand electorate)

Epsom is a New Zealand Parliamentary electorate, returning one Member of Parliament to the New Zealand House of Representatives. The current MP for Epsom is Rodney Hide MP of the ACT Party. [ [http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/MPP/MPs/MPs/b/b/d/48MP11981-Hide-Rodney.htm New Zealand Parliament - Rodney Hide MP] ] He has held this position since 2005.

Epsom is based around central and eastern Auckland City. It contains the suburbs of Parnell, Remuera, Mount Eden, Newmarket, half of Greenlane and the eponymous suburb of Epsom. Under boundary changes sparked by the 2006 census, Epsom will be enlarged to include the central city suburb of Grafton.

Epsom is predominately Pākehā, and has an average income high above the national average. Epsom was created ahead of the first Mixed Member Proportional election in 1996, carved out of the Remuera and Eden seats. Remuera was a safe seat for the National Party, having never elected a Member of Parliament from the Labour Party, while Eden was a bellwether seat, changing hands with the change of government. Both of these seats were held by National MPs - Christine Fletcher in Eden and Doug (later Sir Douglas) Graham in Remuera.

History

The Epsom seat was first contested in New Zealand's first Mixed Member Proportional election in 1996. The National party candidate was Christine Fletcher; she came out of the election with the nation's biggest personal majority: a 19,000 vote margin over the second placed Labour candidate, Helen Duncan.

With Fletcher standing down at the 1999 election to focus on her role as the newly elected Mayor of Auckland, the electorate battle was a contest between new National candidate Richard Worth and ACT List MP Rodney Hide. Worth won the seat by approximately 1900 votes; In 2002, he easily retained Epsom, with other parties contesting only the party vote.

The 2005 race for Epsom was won by Rodney Hide after a tough contest for the personal vote. As the leader of ACT, Hide was determined to contest Epsom in order to guarantee his party representation in the next parliament, should ACT not break the five percent threshold - under New Zealand electoral law, a party can gain representation if it fails to cross the threhold, but does win one or more constituency seats.

As it became more likely ACT would not break five percent, the campaign in Epsom became more intense, with Hide lobbying voters to vote strategically to keep ACT in Parliament, a message that ultimately prevailed, with National MP Richard Worth, defeated by 3,102 votes on election night and returned to Parliament via the National Party list.

Members of Parliament for Epsom

Unless otherwise stated, all MPs terms began and started at general elections.

sourced from [http://2005.electionresults.govt.nz/electorate-13.html electionresults.govt.nz]

References

External links

* [http://www.parliament.nz/NR/rdonlyres/77E36F0C-1968-4DF4-9DBF-D5BB32DEBF68/116/Epsom1.pdf Electorate Profile] "Parliamentary Library"