Wagner confirmed

The Herald reports:

National MP Nicky Wagner has been confirmed as the winner of the Christchuch Central seat after the result of a judicial recount.

Last Saturday’s official result had Ms Wagner ahead of Labour’s Brendon Burns by 45 votes. Mr Burns requested a recount and the result, released today, saw Ms Wagner increase the winning margin to 47 votes.

The result of a recount for the seat of Waitakere is still pending. On Saturday’s result Labour’s Carmel Sepuloni won the seat by 11 votes ahead of National’s Paula Bennett.

Will be interesting to see the Waitakere result, which is taking a lot longer.

Good to have the win in Christchurch Central confirmed. It is amazing to have National hold both Christchurch and Auckland Central. Now just need Wellington Central for the hat trick!

My cunning plan for WC is that as Labour got fewer party votes than the Greens in WC, have Nats in 2014 tactically vote for the Green candidate with James Shaw winning it comfortably off Grant Robertson. That then triggers a civil war on the left akin to the Tutsi and Hutu conflicts, and National picks it up in 2017 from the remains 🙂