Ohariu-Belmont (New Zealand electorate)

Ohariu-Belmont was a New Zealand parliamentary electorate from 1996 to 2008.

The 1996 election was notable for the significant change of electorate boundaries, based on the provisions of the Electoral Act 1993.^[1] Because of the introduction of the mixed-member proportional (MMP) electoral system, the number of electorates had to be reduced, leading to significant changes. More than half of the electorates contested in 1996 were newly constituted, and most of the remainder had seen significant boundary changes. In total, 73 electorates were abolished, 29 electorates were newly created (including Ohariu-Belmont), and 10 electorates were recreated, giving a net loss of 34 electorates.

The electorate covered the northern suburbs of the city of Wellington, i.e. Ngaio, Tawa, Khandallah and Johnsonville, and also the adjacent suburb of Belmont in the Western Hutt Valley.

The electorate was established in the first MMP election of 1996. It replaced Onslow, but also included Belmont so was renamed Ohariu-Belmont.

In the 1993 election the Onslow electorate had replaced the earlier Ohariu electorate which had existed since the 1978 election, and when in the 2008 election the Belmont area was shifted to the Hutt Valley electorate of Rimutaka, the electorate was renamed back to Ōhariu (with a macron).^[2]

Key

¹United New Zealand joined with Future New Zealand to become United Future New Zealand, in 2002.

Members of Parliament elected from party lists in elections where that person also unsuccessfully contested the Ohariu-Belmont electorate. Unless otherwise stated, all MPs terms began and ended at general elections.

¹Chauvel entered Parliament on 1 August 2006, following the resignation of Jim Sutton.
²Shanks entered Parliament on 7 February 2007, following the resignation of Don Brash.

2005 general election: Ohariu-Belmont[3]
Notes:		Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	United Future	Y Peter Dunne		16,844	45.60	-12.25	2,063	5.54	-7.47
	Labour	Charles Chauvel		9,142	24.91	+4.49	14,720	39.57	+2.93
	National	Katrina Shanks		7,329	19.70	+6.41	16,042	43.13	+18.75
	Green	Roland Sapsford		1,877	5.12	+2.10	2,174	5.84	-0.62
	ACT	Heather Roy		744	2.03	-0.43	554	1.49	-8.66
	NZ First	Timothy Manu		433	1.18		1,024	2.75	-2.15
	Progressive	Elspeth Sandys		242	0.66	+0.03	239	0.64	-0.53
	Libertarianz	Colin Linden Cross		82	0.22		21	0.05
	Destiny						127	0.34
	Māori Party						104	0.28
	Legalise Cannabis						58	0.16	-0.21
	Christian Heritage						17	0.05	-0.81
	99 MP						16	0.04
	Alliance						16	0.04	-1.20
	Family Rights						8	0.02
	One NZ						5	0.01	-0.05
	Democrats						4	0.01
	RONZ						3	0.01
	Direct Democracy						2	0.01
Informal votes				247			73
Total valid votes				36,693			37,197
	United Future hold		Majority	7,702	20.99	-16.54

2002 general election: Ohariu-Belmont[4]
Notes:		Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	United Future	Y Peter Dunne		19,355	57.95	+0.45	4,394	13.01	[note 1]+8.49
	Labour	Gill Body-Greer		6,821	20.42	+1.37	12,374	36.64	+5.42
	National	Dale Stephens		4,440	13.29		8,232	24.38	-15.18
	Green	Gareth Bodle		1,008	3.02	-1.05	2,183	6.46	+1.84
	ACT	Heather Roy		823	2.46	-4.24	3,428	10.15	+1.29
	Legalise Cannabis	Dave Moore		276	0.83		126	0.37	+0.29
	Christian Heritage	Chris Salt		242	0.72	-1.17	292	0.86	-1.10
	Alliance	Rebecca Matthews		222	0.66	-3.25	418	1.24	-4.06
	Progressive	C Kerr		210	0.63		394	1.17
	NZ First						1,654	4.90	2.93
	ORNZ						246	0.73
	One NZ						21	0.06	+0.02
	Mana Māori						8	0.02	±0.00
	NMP						1	0.00	-0.38
Informal votes				211			83
Total valid votes				33,397			33,771
	United Future hold		Majority	12,534	37.53

1999 general election: Ohariu-Belmont[5][6]
Notes:		Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	United NZ	Y Peter Dunne		20,240	57.40	+8.41	1,004	2.81	+0.24
	Labour	Derek Best		7,683	21.79	-1.00	11,154	31.22	+5.13
	ACT	Kathryn Asare		2,361	6.70	+0.76	3,167	8.86	+2.51
	Green	Caron Zillwood		1,436	4.07		1,649	4.62
	Alliance	Rebecca Matthews		1,342	3.81	-8.40	1,894	5.30	-3.00
	Christian Heritage	Chris Salt		666	1.89		701	1.96
	Future NZ	Wayne Chapman		475	1.35		610	1.71
	NZ First	Bruce Farland		453	1.28	-3.18	703	1.97	-3.91
	McGillicuddy Serious	Philip John Grimmett		284	0.81		71	0.20	-0.14
	NMP	Mark Atkin		140	0.40		135	0.38
	Asia Pacific	Sriram Gopalakrishnan		102	0.29
	Natural Law	Bruce Sowry		82	0.23		18	0.05	-0.15
	National						14,133	39.56
	Legalise Cannabis						289	0.08	-1.09
	Libertarianz						84	0.26	+0.24
	Animals First						57	0.16	-0.04
	Mauri Pacific						18	0.05
	One NZ						13	0.04
	Freedom Movement						9	0.03
	Mana Māori						6	0.02	+0.01
	South Island						5	0.01
	People's Choice						5	0.01
	Republican						2	0.01
Informal votes							169
Total valid votes				35,182			35,727
	United NZ hold		Majority	12,557	35.69