National's Hamish Campbell was celebrating as he won the Ilam seat by an election night majority of more than 6000 votes ahead of Raf Manji.
The hotly-contested seat was picked to be the one to watch in Christchurch.
Campbell says he was happy to reclaim the seat for National.
"The message is loud and clear. I think people were wanting a change. So I think that's what we've seen in the results tonight".
Manji, a former city councillor turned leader of The Opportunities Party, had hoped to win the Ilam seat to give Christchurch a voice in Parliament.
"I think it shows that, you know, people do worry about the future and people are worried about Christchurch. And I don't think Christchurch was talked enough about in this election". He says it is a strong result for National and he'll likely not run in an electorate again.
"Trying to reach people is probably the hardest thing. But yeah, we did what we could. And it's not a bad result, but we didn't win. So that's it".
Incumbent Labour MP Sarah Pallett says she was disappointed with the result. At number 51 on Labour’s list, she is out of Parliament. She says Raf Manji running in the Ilam electorate split the vote.
"I thought from the very beginning, as soon as I knew that Raf was standing, that he would likely do what he did in 2017, which is to split the vote and give the win to National. So and we've seen that happen again, which is disappointing, but it's politics".
Official results are expected to be confirmed early November.
- By Geoff Sloan
Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
