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Regional | Elections

Election Aotearoa: Tāmaki Makaurau candidates respond to poll results

Candidates vying for the Tāmaki Makaurau electorate took centre stage in the final Election Aotearoa candidates' debate.

Māori Television's most recent poll results for the region show it's a very tight race.

Labour's Peeni Henare sits on 46% and not far behind him is the Māori Party's Shane Taurima on just over 32% with the Greens Marama Davidson on 21.4%.

In part one of the show, the candidates respond to the results, which also show a lot of people are yet to decide on who they will vote for.

In Tāmaki Makaurau, there's a surprising high number of voters in the older age groups who are yet to be convinced.  While young voters often don’t know, mature voters are more loyal and more likely to get to the voting booth.

But in Tāmaki Makaurau, the don't knows account for 17.6% of voters aged between 35-44; 19.6% among 55-64 and 15.9% for 65+.

If such high numbers of undecided swing behind Taurima or Davidson, it could potentially swing the seat.

Among those who do know their preferred candidate, Henare leads among both the youngest and oldest voters with 45.5% support among those aged 18-24; 30.4% for 25-34 and 50% among 65+.

Taurima gets 18.2% among 18-24; overtakes briefly to 34.8% among 25-34 before dipping to 40.5% among 65+.

Davidson's strongest support is among younger voters with a strong challenge of 36.4% among 18-24; going neck and neck with Taurima at 34.8% among 25-34 before diving to 9.65% among 65+.

In the Preferred Party, all Auckland roads in this Māori seat lead to Labour with a commanding 47% support.

The Māori Party is a distant second on 14.5%; National 12.6% and New Zealand First 12.6%.

While the Greens are fifth with 11.3%, it's the strongest performance for the Greens in all of the Māori electorates.

The Tāmaki Makaurau poll was conducted by Reid Research from July 12 to September 5 with 400 voters and a margin of error of 4.89%.