Ross wins Botany, becomes country's youngest MP

BOTANY BYELECTION
Jami-Lee Ross, National: 8150 (56%)
Michael Wood, Labour: 4154 votes (27.9%)
Paul Young, New Citizens Party: 1572 (10.5%)
Lyn Murphy, Act: 671 (4.5%)

Turnout: 36.5% (second lowest on record for a by-election).

National majority: 3996 (56% of 14,911 votes cast)
National majority, 2008 election: 10,872 (55.52% of 31,305 votes cast)

See the full preliminary results for last night's bylection on the  Electoral Commission website here (and fulll 2008 results here).

National's Jami-Lee Ross (25) became the country's youngest MP last night after winning the Botany byelection with a majority of 3996. 

Prime minister John Key, cabinet ministers Judith Collins and Maurice Williamson, plus around 100 supporters, joined Mr Ross as results came in.

Mr Ross' majority was around 7000 votes fewer than that achieved by Pansy Wong for the east Auckland seat at the 2008 general election.

That headline number looks bad.

Yet the extremely low-turnout (36.7%, or just under half the voters who turn out for the general election) saw Mr Ross actually snare a slightly higher percentage of votes (56%) than Ms Wong (55.52%), whose resignation sparked the byelection.

"I think it shows that the government's in good shape. But I think the turnout is so low and the conditions are so unusual that I wouldn't read too much into it either way," Mr Key said.

Act vote collapses
There can be no finessing the Act result, however. The party's candidate, Lyn Murphy, recieved just 674 votes (or 4.5%), and was pushed into fourth place by the Asian-backed New Citizens Party, which collected 1572.

At the 2008 general election, Act's Kenneth Wang drew 4717 votes, or 15.07%.

The New Citizens Party members include former Labour candidate Stephen Ching and Jack Chen, Jack Chen, one of the driving forces behind the bid by Hong Kong company Natural Dairy NZ for the Crafar farms.

Labour gains
Labour's candidate, union organiser Michael Wood, increased his party's share of the vote from 21% at the 2008 general election to 27.9%. 

But with turnout (36.5%) the second lowest on record for a byelection amid the distraction of the Christchurch quake, wet weather and the wide assumption Mr Ross would romp home  (14,911 Botonians voted, compared to 31,305 in 2008), pundits should be hesitent to draw too many conclusions from Mr Wood's advance (also aided by the fact the Greens failed to register a candidate in time).

Left wing agitator and prolific online commenter Penny Bright bagged 124 votes.

Mr Ross, an Auckland City counciler, beat broadcaster Maggie Barry in the nomination race for the safe eastern suburbs seat.