Pakuranga (New Zealand electorate)

rightPakuranga is a New Zealand Parliamentary electorate.

It is currently held by Maurice Williamson MP.

Population centres

Pakuranga is one of sixty-three general electorates used in New Zealand general elections. It covers the population centres of Pakuranga, Farm Cove, Half Moon Bay, Bucklands Beach, parts of Highland Park and parts of Howick.

History

Pakuranga was first contested in 1963, and won by future Labour Party frontbencher Bob Tizard. It was recaptured by National in 1972, and has stayed with National since, save for a brief interregnum - the New Zealand Party's presence on the ballot paper in 1984 split the centre-right vote and handed the seat to Social Credit's Neil Morrison.

With the introduction of MMP in 1996 the seat was expanded to absorb the most of the neighbouring seat of Howick. Its boundaries have remained largely unchanged since; an attempt in 2007 to resurrect a seat around Howick by pulling the Pakuranga boundaries across the Tamaki River and adding Panmure, Point England and Glen Innes from Auckland City was abandoned in the face of strenuous local objection. Instead, Howick was renamed Botany and centered on the...
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