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Te Ururoa Flavell (Te Waiariki)
Marama Fox (Co-Leader)
Tukoroirangi Morgan (President)

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Ko wai i wikitōria mo te takiwa a Te waiariki

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Ko wai i wikitōria mo te takiwa a Te waiariki

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The Waiariki electorate has spoken and it has chosen Tamati Coffey.

Labour's Coffey is the new Waiariki MP with incumbent Te Ururoa Flavell out of Parliament - along with his Maori Party.

With 100 per cent of the votes counted, Coffey had 9847 votes and Flavell had 8526.

In his victory speech in front of a loud and delighted crowd of supporters at Hinemihi Marae Coffey thanked his supporters.

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The Waiariki electorate has spoken and it has chosen Tamati Coffey.

Labour's Coffey is the new Waiariki MP with incumbent Te Ururoa Flavell out of Parliament - along with his Maori Party.

With 100 per cent of the votes counted, Coffey had 9847 votes and Flavell had 8526.

In his victory speech in front of a loud and delighted crowd of supporters at Hinemihi Marae Coffey thanked his supporters.

He paid tribute in particular to Te Arawa kaumatua Dr Ken Kennedy.

"I have grown into a stronger, more confident person within my Maoritanga (because of him)."

He then thanked his partner, Tim Smith.

"Timmy. I absolutely wouldn't be standing here if it wasn't for Tim's love and support."

He said Smith had been his campaign manager through both his election campaigns as well as managing the couple's Rotorua bar Ponsonby Rd.

"My elevation to parliament is as much yours as mine.

"I am the greatest fan of you Timmy, I love you."

Coffey said the four years campaigning had been "the longest job interview of my life".

He then went on to make pledges to those across his electorate.

"You can rely on me to be there. To be the soldier for our people on the marae, the streets and in parliament."

Earlier, Flavell all but conceded his Waiariki seat to Coffey in an emotional speech to his supporters where he told the crowd "I'm coming home".

Through tears Flavell told the equally emotional supporters, some who were holding their heads in their hands crying, that he was sad and felt Maori had now lost their voice in Parliament.

"Tomorrow when you wake up there are likely to be seven seats back in the hands of Labour who are likely to be in opposition. So don't tangi back to me."

He said he was disappointed he wasn't able to maintain that link from the past into the future.

"I feel heavy at heart but the people have spoken, even in Waiariki they have spoken and I can't get away from that."

At times admitting he was a little bit lost for words, Flavell said he fought for a party to have its own voice.

"I hope they don't wake up tomorrow shaking their heads because I don't want to hear that ... tonight, it's gone and that's the sad part. I don't want to hear people talk about tino rangatiratanga and mana motuhake because we had it and now it's gone.

"But I'm not going to go to bed too sad because I tried my very best. It is what it is."

He thanked his family, particularly his wife Erana.

Mr Flavell said although he had not officially conceded, if Coffey and the six other successful Maori candidates throughout the country had the best interests of Maori at heart, he would be happy.

"Thank you so much for backing me and for backing my party."

Former Maori Party president Pem Bird said despite feeling "distraught and disillusioned" he urged the party to come back stronger than ever in three years' time.

"Te Ururoa you have made sacrifices, time with your whanau, but you've never sacrificed your principles."

One of his staff members, Pare Richards, said everyone at the party tonight knew Flavell was "amazing".

She said he was the same person before he came into Parliament, he was the same while he was an MP and a Minister and he would be the same person tomorrow.

"You don't change and that's why we love you."

The crowd at Hinemihi Marae fell silent as they watched Flavell give his concession speech.

Coffey urged his supporters to show respect to his competitor and looked solemn as Flavell wiped the tears from his eyes.

A cheer never came from the crowd and Coffey said it was a big moment.

"I could feel the aroha from his stage," he said.

"As he said, the people have spoken."

Speaking to the Rotorua Daily Post, Coffey said it had been a big night for a lot of people, not just him.

"This win is not just for me. This win is for everybody here and for all the iwi across the Waiariki."

He said he had to be in Auckland at 8am tomorrow so the celebrations wouldn't be too big tonight.

Earlier:

Labour Party supporters at Hinemihi Marae are celebrating as each winning Labour seat comes across the TV screen.

The excitement is building, with Coffey getting a standing ovation as his lead continues to grow.

Coffey said he was still hopeful for a Labour government.

"Give it an hour or so and we'll see what a potential left wing coalition might look like.

"To Maori they [the Maori seats] are of the utmost importance.

"They are our voice in parliament."

Meanwhile at at Waiteti Marae near Ngongotaha where the Maori Party faithful are gathered, Russell Harrison is singing the reggae hit, No Woman No Cry.

Maori Party Waiariki co-chairman Te Taru White said if the votes kept going the way they were it would be a "travesty" for Maori.

He said the way it was heading, National and New Zealand First would form the next Government and the Maori Party would be out.

"None of the Maori members will have a say other than the Maori (Winston Peters) who wants to repeal the Maori voice. It's a travesty.

"The people look to be voting for change but I don't think they realise what change will be. In the process (of voting Labour) they have taken out the Maori Party, the only Maori voice in there."

White said he believed the Maori Party had not been able to resonate with the younger voters, which he said was sad.

"That's difficult to swallow. Our motto is about doing it for ourselves and taking hold of our own destiny."

He said it would be a great shame if Waiariki didn't have Flavell as its representative.

"He is a hard worker and he is honest."

Earlier the Maori Party supporters were given a boost of confidence after watching co-leader Marama Fox in a Maori Television interview on the big screen.

Fox said "it ain't over until the fat lady sings" and urged those in the Waiariki electorate not to give up hope.

There were cheers of support when she said the turn to Labour was a backwards step for Maori.

"They've changed the driver but it's still the same bus," Fox said on the Maori Television cross.

The latest results showing Coffey has increased his lead has been met with a dignified silence from the Maori Party supporters.

Earlier, Coffey said he was "quietly optimistic" so far but it was still "early days".

The Labour supporters gathered at Hinemihi Marae burst into applause each time the results - showing Coffey with his nose in front of Flavell - are shown on the large TV screen.

About 250 Maori Party supporters, family and friends of Flavell are at Waiteti Marae near Ngongotaha.

Flavell said it was always going to be a tight race with Coffey because he was a "personality" before entering politics.

"He has been on TV and people knew him ... Maori politics is very much about personality."

However, Flavell said he had done the hard yards and he hoped his record spoke for itself.

Flavell said he spent today reflecting on what he had done and the campaign as well as attending to routine chores, including looking after his moko and mowing the lawns.

He said in seeking a fourth term, he hoped his record spoke for itself.

"If it doesn't then so be it."

However, he said he was still feeling confident despite the early results, especially since there had been two polls done including Maori Television's poll and an internal poll, which both put him about 20 per cent ahead.

Entertainer Russell Harrison has picked up the mood of the Maori Party with a few sing-a-long songs.

Kirsten Rei from the Maori Party has just told the crowd how the voting system worked and why the supporters shouldn't be worried.

She said it was the first time there had been so many advance votes. She said younger people were more likely to cast advance votes and the Maori Party traditionally attracted older voters.

"We should start to see things climb.

"While I don't want to give you false hopes, we have nothing to worry about whanau, keep singing Russell."

Flavell said the change in Labour's leadership to Jacinda Ardern and the rise in Labour's popularity would have helped Coffey.

Maori Party supporter Fallyn Flavell said this was the first time the party in Waiariki had been in this position.

"That is why it is so stagnant (at tonight's gathering). We have always been ahead. This is very unusual territory for us."

However Ms Flavell said the "Maori Party hard" supporters knew it was early days, only a small percentage of votes had been counted and they were confident it would swing back the other way later in the night.

"The faith is strong that we will pull through. It comes down to those older voters. The ones that have been voting continuously throughout every election (on Election Day) that will pull through later on tonight."

Around 8.45pm Maori Party Rotorua candidate Wendy Biddle arrived with her whanau.

She said she enjoyed the campaign.

"I am just praying that our people come through for our Maori Party because we are the only kaupapa Maori driven party. We are not the party that has to toe the party line, we are there for Maori and the rest of the country get to benefit as a bonus."

She said she would like to thank all of her supporters for helping her through her journey, including her fellow Rotorua candidates.

"We actually had a good rapport and I told them at our last gathering that I'm going to miss them."

Just before 8pm, Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick arrived at Hinemihi Marae to support Coffey and Labour Rotorua candidate Ben Sandford.

She said it certainly takes her back to her own election night.

"At this stage it's very nerve wrecking," she said.

"It's certainly not the tidal wave Labour were expecting."

Chadwick said it was still too early to call.

"No matter who wins, I will work with them for the best interests of this city.

"All of our candidates have worked so hard."

Flavell, who has won the seat for he last three elections, has enjoyed a meal with his supporters. They have a large screen set up where they are watching the results as they come in.

Coffey said he chose the marae because it was his mother's.

Tonight the whare kai has been plastered in red with Labour Party signs and red balloons across the walls.

The atmosphere is one of nervous excitement with Coffey saying it was too close to call.

As he gave an opening address the weather played on the large screen behind him, something the former TV weatherman joked was "oddly appropriate".

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Tamati Coffey wins Waiariki; Flavell and Maori Party out

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The Waiariki electorate has spoken and it has chosen Tamati Coffey. Labour's Coffey is the new Waiariki MP with incumbent Te Ururoa Flavell out of Parliament - along with his Maori Party. With 100 per cent of the votes counted, Coffey had 9847 votes and Flavell had 8526.

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The Maori Party may fail to win a seat in Parliament with all the Maori electorates looking on the verge of going red.

With 43 per cent of the votes counted, Labour is ahead in all seven of the Maori electorates.

The Maori Party's party vote is sitting at 1.1 per cent meaning they must win an electorate seat to remain in parliament.

Their best bet is in the Bay of Plenty where it is a tight race between Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell and Labour's Tamati Coffey.

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The Maori Party may fail to win a seat in Parliament with all the Maori electorates looking on the verge of going red.

With 43 per cent of the votes counted, Labour is ahead in all seven of the Maori electorates.

The Maori Party's party vote is sitting at 1.1 per cent meaning they must win an electorate seat to remain in parliament.

Their best bet is in the Bay of Plenty where it is a tight race between Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell and Labour's Tamati Coffey.

The Waiariki electorate has long been held by Flavell but it looks like he may not come out on top this time.

Labour's Tamati Coffey is just ahead on 5015 votes with 36 per cent of the vote counted. Flavell, who first won the seat in 2005, is just behind him on 4594.

In Tamaki Makaurau, Labour's Peeni Henare is on 3411 votes, almost 1500 votes ahead of the Maori Party's Shane Taurima who is on 1935.

Labour's Nanaia Mahuta is more than 4000 votes ahead of the Maori Party's Stanley Rahul Papa who is on 2581 votes in Hauraki-Waikato.

Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox is also trailing Labour's Meka Whaitiri in the Ikaroa-Rawhiti by almost 2000 votes.

In Te Tai Hauauru, Labour's Adrian Paki Rurawhe is more than 1000 votes ahead of the Maori Party's Howie Tamati.

Further South, Labour's Rino Tirikatene is soaring ahead on 5260 votes in the Te Tai Tonga electorate with former Green Party co-leader trailing by more than 2400 votes signalling the end of her political career. The Maori Party is even further behind with only 2320 votes.

Up north, Labour co-leader Kelvin Davis is soaring ahead in Te Tai Tokerau. He is almost 2000 votes ahead of Mana's Hone Harawira who is trying to win back the seat he lost in 2014 after he joined forces with Kim Dotcom's Internet Party.

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Vote 2017: Maori Party may be out of parliament

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The Maori Party may fail to win a seat in Parliament with all the Maori electorates looking on the verge of going red. With 43 per cent of the votes counted, Labour is ahead in all seven of the Maori electorates.

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The up rise of labour has forced Maori Party out of parliament due to the amount of votes that they have gotten but unfortunately all those votes have been given to labour

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Te ururoa Flavells farewell to Maori Party

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Te ururoa Flavells farewell to Maori Party

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Te Ururoa as you know has been kicked out of the Maori party due to Nz Fisrt Leader, Winston Peters accusing him on hiding behind he's Maori Language because he answered a question on state house sales, and homelessness labour's Kevin Davis in te reo Maori and even after

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Ko wai a Te Ururoa Flavell?
Te Ururoa Flavell was born on the 7th december, 1955 and is 61 years old He is also the co-leader of the Maori party also with Marama Fox (co-leader)

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Well as you know the elections are still going on but unfortunately Maori Parliament wont be joining the parties due to only having 01.1 votes which is sad due to only 98.0 percent of the Maori people voted for the other parliaments thinking that all the other parliaments will treat us like people instead of animals.

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Peter states that there should not be anymore seats for the Maori Parliament due to there unfortunate votes

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ANALYSIS: NZ First leader Winston Peters wants a binding referendum on whether New Zealand should keep the seven Maori seats in Parliament.

This is hardly the first time a politician has vowed to take another look at the seats, but Peters has said that it is a bottom line for coalition talks - and polls show he is very likely to be in coalition talks with whichever party forms a government.

Peter is personally against the existence of the seats, describing them as "tokenism". A binding referendum on the issue means that whatever the public decides would have to be implemented by whoever leads the government of the day.

But that's all off in the future. If you need a little bit of a civics course refresher on what exactly the seats are - we're here to help.
What are the Maori seats?
The Maori seats come from seven electorates that draw from a separate Maori roll of voters to elect members to Parliament.

Voters of Maori descent can choose to go on this roll instead of the general electorate roll that the rest of the country uses. Their party votes don't change, but their electorate votes go to the Maori electorate contest taking place wherever they live.

So someone on the Maori roll in Wellington won't vote in the Rongotai or Wellington Central electorate, they'll vote in the Te Tai Tonga electorate, which covers all of the South Island and Wellington.

The seven electorates are roughly the same size - population wise - as the general electorates. Most of them are clustered in the top half of the North Island.

Why do they exist?

The reason the seats were created is quite different from the reason we have them today.

When the New Zealand Constitution Act passed in the British Parliament in 1852, Maori could technically vote, but were rarely allowed to, because the right to vote was restricted to adult males who owned or rented property in a freehold or leasehold arrangement. Most Maori owned property communally or with customary title, so could not vote.

This de facto disenfranchisement did not help already high tensions between coloniser and colonised. After all, Maori were still made to pay tax and were subject to the laws of Parliament - including laws that made it far easier for European settlers to buy land from them.

Maori nationalists called for a separate Maori Parliament but were instead granted the seats in 1867 - four of them, three in the North Island, and one in the South.

Interestingly enough Maori were actually granted the individual vote before Europeans - although the 56,000 Maori were represented by just four seats while the 171,000 Europeans got 72. The preamble to the bill suggests that this setup may be temporary - i.e. until either Maori became traditional European landowners or everyone got individual votes.

Eventually it was the latter, but the Maori seats remained - just four of them, regardless of the size of the population.

Various deficiencies in the system remained. Until the 1930s Maori didn't vote by secret ballot. Until 1967 Maori politicians were only allowed to stand in the four Maori seats. and until 1975 only "half caste" voters could choose which electorates to vote in - all "full" Maori voters had to vote in the Maori seats.

When we switched electoral systems in the 1990s there were renewed calls to abolish the seats - as Maori and Europeans alike would vote in the same party vote and all parties above 5 per cent would be in Parliament, proportional representation of Maori seemed inevitable. After all, it is principally the party vote that decides the makeup of Parliament.

But these calls were shot down by strong protest from Maori leaders. Instead, the number of seats was increased to better represent the population. In 2002 the number was increased to seven, where it has stayed ever since.
Which party has traditionally won them?
The Maori seats were established before party politics really took hold in New Zealand. But since Labour came to power in 1935 they have dominated the seats, with a few notable exceptions.

Ironically, NZ First owes a lot of its existence as a party to the seats. In 1996 the the nascent party won all five of the seats and established itself as real movement. Later in 2004 the Maori Party, formed when Labour minister Tariana Turia resigned from the party, won their first seat in Turia's Te Tai Hauauru. The Maori Party continue to owe their existence to the seats, having never secured five per cent or more of the party vote.

Currently, Labour hold six of the seven seats.
Now who wants to get rid of them?
Over the years people of all political stripes have called for the seats to be abolished - including Prime Minister Bill English when he was last leader in 2003.

Nowadays NZ First are leading the charge, but they aren't alone. Former National Party and ACT leader Don Brash is leading the "Hobson's Pledge" movement, which, among other aims, wants to abolish the seats. He has indicated an interest in possibly donating to NZ First.

Peters is calling for a referendum, of course, but it is assumed by many that the majority European general population would vote to get rid of the seats.
Are either of the main two parties going to allow this referendum to go ahead?
Peters' two possible coalition partners have not ruled it out, but neither seem especially keen. Labour's Kelvin Davis - who holds Te Tai Tokerau - said they would only get rid of the seats if Maori indicated they didn't want them any more. National's Paula Bennett told RNZ the party did not have a position on the referendum yet, but they did generally support a move towards removing the seats - she just wasn't sure if that should happen right away.

It's worth noting that Labour have an interest in keeping the seats as they currently hold six of them and National do too given without them one of their crucial support partners would not exist.
Is it true most Maori are on the general roll?
Both Peters and Brash have mentioned that Maori are already voting with their feet and ditching the Maori roll for the general one.

There is some backing for this. Statistics New Zealand estimated the Maori voting age population in 2016 was around 444,000. The Maori roll in 2017 is made up of just 238,866 people.

Nevertheless, any move to get rid of the seats will spark a lot of protest - John Key once dismissed the idea because of the "hikois from hell" that would result, despite supporting it while seeking election.

So while Peters will likely have a lot of power after September, being in Government has a way of softening radical ideas.
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Explainer: The Maori seats and their uncertain future

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ANALYSIS: NZ First leader Winston Peters wants a binding referendum on whether New Zealand should keep the seven Maori seats in Parliament. This is hardly the first time a politician has vowed to take another look at the seats, but Peters has said that it is a bottom line for coalition talks - and polls show he is very likely to be in coalition talks with whichever party forms a government.