Mixed results for Indian candidates in 2023 election

A record 14 Indian-origin candidates from across the political spectrum stood in the 2023 election, with at least three managing to secure a seat in Parliament once the dust has settled.

Labour's Priyanca Radhakrishnan, ACT's Parmjeet Parmar and National's Siva Kilari - who all lost their respective electorate races - are set to be MPs based on their list rankings.

Depending on which way special votes go, National's Auckland Central candidate Mahesh Muralidhar might yet become the fourth - which would be the highest Indian representation in Parliament in the country's history.

Special votes are expected to take another three weeks to confirm.

National

Kilari was the highest-ranked Indian-origin candidate on National's list (30), which has catapulted him into Parliament.

The National Party is poised to win 50 seats after having secured 38.95 percent the party vote.

Kilari was standing in the Labour stronghold of Manurewa and lost to sitting Labour MP Arena Williams by a margin of 5260 votes. He secured 28.72 percent of the party vote for National, compared to Labour's 51.49 percent.

Meanwhile, National's remaining three Indian-origin candidates - Navtej Singh Randhawa (46, Panmure-Ōtāhuhu), Karunā Muthu (51, Rongotai) and Ankit Bansal (52, Palmerston North) - have all lost to candidates from left-leaning parties.

Labour's Jenny Salesa repeated her 2020 win from Panmure-Ōtāhuhu by a margin of 5668 votes. Randhawa, however, was able to double the party vote in the electorate this time, securing 26.22 percent on election night, up from 12.8 percent in 2020.

Bansal ran Labour's Tangi Utikere close, securing 10,415 electorate votes in Palmerston North. He lost by a margin of 2733 votes. National, however, got 34.34 percent of the party votes in the electorate compared to Labour's 31.59 percent.

In Rongotai, Muthu's tally of 7,105 electorate votes was boosted by a split in votes between eventual winner Julie Anne Genter of the Greens (12,109 votes) and Labour's Fleur Fitzsimons (11,317 votes). National also managed to snag 22 percent of the party vote in the electorate.

Meanwhile, National's losing candidate from the high-profile Auckland Central electorate will have to wait for a few weeks until the special votes are counted to know his fate.

Muralidhar (43) secured 8991 electorate votes compared to sitting MP Chlöe Swarbrick's 11,065, losing by a margin of 2074. National, however, got 33.79 percent of the party vote in the electorate against Labour's 23.32 percent and Green's 22.5 percent.

In 2020, National was at 21.2 percent of the electorate's party vote, Labour at 46.2 percent and the Greens at 19.1 percent.

To win, Muralidhar needed a split in left-leaning votes but with Labour's Oscar Sims bringing in 1689 votes, his hopes faded.

In 2020, when Swarbrick won the electorate by securing 12,631 votes, Labour candidate Helen White had secured 11,563 votes.

ACT

National's soon-to-be coalition partner ACT had two Indian-origin candidates ranked high enough on the list to make it into Parliament. Unless special votes reconfigure the final count, only one appears likely to make the cut.

Securing almost 9 percent of the party vote and two electorate wins, ACT looks to be getting 11 MPs in the next Parliament.

Former National MP Parmjeet Parmar (9) looks set to start her third term as a lawmaker, albeit for a different party. However, she secured just 992 votes in the electorate of Pakuranga against eventual winner National's Simeon Brown, who won by a margin of 15,533 and secured 21,215 votes in total.

The other high-ranking Indian-origin candidate from Hamilton East, Himanshu Parmar (13), who stood on the single-point agenda of "restoring law and order", looks to have missed the cut this time. He secured 1300 votes, while eventual winner Ryan Hamilton of National received 14,318 votes.

One of the highlights of this election has come from the Mount Roskill electorate, where National's Carlos Cheung is ahead of popular Labour MP Michael Wood by 1429 votes, with special votes still to be counted.

In this electorate, Indian-origin candidate Rahul Chopra of ACT appears to have suffered due to a consolidation of right-leaning votes behind Cheung. Chopra finished fourth in the electorate race with 1618 votes. Suveen Sanis Walgampola of the Greens finished ahead of Chopra after securing 2108 votes.

In South Auckland, ACT's Mangere candidate, Pothen Joseph, received just 410 votes, with Labour's Lemauga Lydia Sosene winning the seat by a margin of 8385.

A much better performance came in the South Island, where Ankita Lynn stood against Labour campaign chair Megan Woods in Christchurch's Wigram electorate. Lynn secured 1168 electorate votes compared to Woods' 12,685.

Labour

Kharag Singh, who was ranked a lowly 66 on the Labour Party's list, needed a miracle to get into the Parliament, as he was up against National leader Christopher Luxon in Botany.

As expected Luxon easily secured the electorate by a margin of 13,656 votes. His party also secured 59.77 percent of the party vote compared to Labour's 19.59 percent.

Maungakiekie was an interesting battle, with two candidates from the left - both of Indian-origin - fighting against each other.

Labour's Priyanca Radhakrishnan, who created history last election by becoming the first-ever Indian-origin MP from the electorate, squared up against National's Greg Fleming and Sapna Samant of the Greens.

Fleming eventually sailed through in the marginal seat with 12,764 votes. Radhakrishnan finished second with 9114 votes, followed by Samant with 1809.

Radhakrishnan is set to start her third term as an MP, though, courtesy of her high list ranking of 15.

The Greens

Samant, meanwhile, was ranked last on the Greens list (28) and misses out this time.

Another Indian-origin candidate, Neelu Jennings, sits a rank above Samant on the list (27) and will also not enter Parliament. Jennings, however, secured 4875 party votes (14.7 percent) for the Greens in her hotly contested electorate of Hutt South.

Unless special votes reconfigure the final tallies, the Green Party will have 14 MPs - including three electorate lawmakers - this time after securing 10.77 percent of total party votes.

With Chinese-origin candidate from Epsom Lawrence Xu-Nan at 16, it seems the party will have to wait a little longer to have an MP of either Indian or Chinese heritage.