2013 Christchurch East by-election

2013 Christchurch East by-election

30 November 2013 (2013-11-30)
Turnout13,726
  First party Second party Third party
 
Candidate Poto Williams Matt Doocey David Moorhouse
Party Labour National Green
Popular vote 8,414 3,577 954
Percentage 61.30% 26.06% 6.96%
Swing 5.86pp 10.40pp 2.15pp

Christchurch East electorate boundaries used for the by-election

MP before election

Lianne Dalziel
Labour

Elected MP

Poto Williams
Labour

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.