A ‘blue wave’ carried the National Party back to power in Saturday’s (October 16) general election, and resulted in victory for Waitaki candidate Miles Anderson.

The National Party candidate received 19,509 votes in the preliminary vote count, more than 10,000 votes ahead of the next highest polling candidate, Labour’s Ethan Reille (9,150).

The National Party has held the Waitaki electorate seat since it was formed in 2008.

Miles told the Wānaka App he and his campaign team had been “working bloody hard” and it was satisfying to see their work had paid off.

“I don’t want to let these people down,” he said, adding: “I’m here to represent all the people of the electorate, not just those who voted for me.”

Miles said he would fly to Wellington Monday morning to get inducted into parliament and talk to Parliamentary Services about how he can best serve his electorate.

“I’d like to push for another office in the Wānaka and Cromwell area,” he said.

“Wānaka is soon going to overtake Oamaru as the biggest centre [in Waitaki] as it’s growing so fast.”

“This week will be interesting,” he said, and “more will be revealed” as the weeks pass. 

Miles was raised in Southburn, on the family’s 220-hectare farm inland from St Andrews, in South Canterbury. He now runs the farm with his wife Kim, and they raised their three adult children there.

While an advocate for farmers, he said he is also passionate about education, trade, crime, and recognises housing, and health are also big issues.

Read more: Farming and education high priority for National candidate

In other results from Waitaki, Green Party candidate Pleasance Hansen received 2,680 votes; Act Party candidate Sean Beamish received 2,088; NZ First candidate Anthony Odering received 1,578; Democracy NZ candidate Roger Small received 942; and NZ Loyal’s Ray Bailey received 881.

Party votes from Waitaki were:

• National (16,508),
• Labour (8,348),
• Act (4,595),
• Greens (3,054)
• New Zealand First (2,697).

There were also a fair number of people who voted for minor parties:

• New Zealand Loyal (694),
• The Opportunities Party (685),
• Democracy NZ (258),
• NewZeal (243),
• Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party (129),
• Te Pāti Māori (113),
• New Conservatives (60),
• Animal Justice Party (52),
• Freedoms NZ (45),
• Leighton Baker Party (28),
• Women’s Rights Party (26),
• New Nation Party (8).