Two stalwarts of the National Party, Nick Smith and Gerry Brownlee, have lost their seats tonight.
They're among multiple electorate seats that looked likely to flip from blue to red as votes across the nation continued to be tallied.
Brownlee conceded his seat after taking a hiding in his electorate of Ilam, a seat he has held since 1996.
Speaking to TVNZ’s Hilary Barry, Brownlee said the results coming through in his electorate show the trend of voting across the country.
“I haven’t campaigned in the electorate as much I might normally would have.
“In the end, it is the choice of voters.”
Brownlee put the blame down to the Covid-19 lockdown.
National colleague Smith - who, like Brownlee, has also held his set since 1996 - also lost his seat in Nelson.
With all the votes in the electorate counted, Labour MP Rachel Boyack sailed in with 18,625 votes and Smith lost out with 15,048 votes.
Back in 2017, Smith easily beat Boyack with 16,735 to her 12,452.
Former National MP Nikki Kaye said earlier in the night that watching the likes of Smith losing his seat was “heartbreaking”.
“Nick has been an incredible member of Parliament for Nelson. But when you have a swing like that it’s very very difficult.”
In the Hutt South electorate, National's Chris Bishop has lost his seat to Labour's Ginny Andersen.
Smith, who had been in the seat since 1996, was one of many National MPs to lose their seats tonight.
Another National-leaning electorate that flipped to Labour is Rangitata.
According to recent results from TVNZ’s Vote Compass, Rangitata is the most right-leaning electorate on issues in the country.
The seat was formally held by National's Andrew Falloon.
The former MP resigned in July following complaints from multiple women about sexually explicit content sent to them by Falloon.
The electorate became the first in the nation tonight to have all votes counted. Labour’s Jo Luxton grabbed 18,876 votes, besting National’s Megan Hands by nearly 3500 votes.
Also appearing to turn red tonight was the East Coast electorate, formerly belonging to National MP Anne Tolley.
With 90 per cemt of the votes counted, Labour's Kiri Allan is sitting on over 17846 votes.
Allan said her lead was down to “blood, sweat and tears” and a “boots on the ground” campaign run by her and her party.
“We decided four and a half years ago this was an electorate we wanted to return to Labour. It’s been 15 years since we’ve held this seat," she told TVNZ's John Campbell.
Other electorates turning from National to Labour
Showing just how monumental the shift from National to Labour is across the country are the electorates of Hamilton West and Hamilton East.
In Hamilton East, National’s David Bennett is falling far behind Labour’s Jamie Strange, who has garnered over 13687 votes so far. While in Hamilton West, Tim Macindoe from the National Party is on track to lose his seat to Labour’s Gaurav Sharma.
In Rangitīkei, Labour’s Soraya Peke-Mason is just inching ahead of National’s Ian McKelvie with 41 % of the vote counted.
1 NEWS is live tonight with the latest results as they come to hand, airing on TVNZ1 and online at 1NEWS.co.nz, as well as the 1 NEWS Facebook, YouTube and Twitter pages on social media.
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