AUCKLAND (Pacific Scoop / Pacific Media Watch): Labour MP Carmel Sepuloni says she is waiting for the "final call" and is holding out hope she can still be re-elected, despite trailing incumbent National minister Paula Bennett by 349 votes.
A circumspect Sepuloni says she is not putting all her hopes on the seat but thinks she is "definitely in with a chance".
"If I am in, I'm in, and if not, it simply means I'm meant to do something else for the next three years," she says.
The New Zealand-born Tongan is number 35 on the Labour list and a loss in Waitakere would see her out of Parliament.
3400 special votes
However, she points out that there are still more than 3,400 special votes to be counted and the situation was similar in 2008, where Lynne Pillay narrowly lost to Bennett.
"She came right back into contention with the special votes and only just lost, so if something similar happens, then we'd really be in it," she says.
Despite the low turnout country-wide, Sepuloni says she would be interested to see the voting figures for Waitakere.
"I've seen a lot of people voting here and I think there's been some great work done by our Pacific media to encourage people to vote," she says.
"I'd be interested to see the profile of the people not turning out to vote. There's nothing more we could have done."
Late enrolments
She says there were hundreds of late enrolments, but that doesn't necessarily mean that those numbers will translate into votes cast.
And she is attributing the drop in Labour votes to the "self-fulfilling prophesy" of voters turning off Labour as a result of poor polling.
Sepuloni says she is proud of her team, which included a good number of young Pasifika volunteers.
"We turned out a lot of young Pacific people to help out on election day," she says.
"It's great to get them engaged in the political process, so they are participating and contributing."
If not successful, Sepuloni says she will have another tilt at Parliament in three years' time.
"And Parliament is not the only place you can have an influence. There will be something for me to do, and I'm pretty sure I will be back."
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Alex Perrottet
