KING COUNTRY RE-ELECTS SITTING MEMBER

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 2, Issue 7, 17 July 1984, Page 1

KING COUNTRY RE-ELECTS SITTING MEMBER

The King Country has returned Mr Jim Bolger for his fifth term of office as a Parliamentarian with a total, on election night, of 9,003 votes. This gives him a majority of 4,954 over his nearest rival, Mr Jim Simons of the Labour Party who polled 4,049 votes. Mr Simons was standing for the first time. Third highest polling candidate was Social Credit candidate, Mr Derek Mason with 1,865 votes. In 1981, under the old boundaries, Mr Mason polled 5,779 votes.

Another new candidate, Mr Graham Short, polled 1,444 votes for the New Zealand Party. Lowest polling candidate was Mr Peter Winter who polled only 1 22 votes for the Values Party. In 1981 Mr Bolger had a majority of 2,158. It is interesting to note the accuracy of Alan McRobie's forecast of the number of votes Mr Bolger would have polled in 1981 had the former King Country boundaries been changed to the present boundaries ... we published these in last week's edition of the Bulletin. Alan McRobie, who is a senior lecturer in Social Sciences at Christchurch Teachers1 College, predicted that Mr Bolger would have polled 9,083 votes. In fact he polled 9,003 on election night last Saturday and with the counting of late votes the two figures could be even closer. We will be bringing you a complete list of all the 105 polling booths in the King Country electorate in next week's edition of the Bulletin.