Sam Uffindell holds a commanding lead over his Labour rival Jan Tinetti in the Tauranga byelection to replace longstanding electorate MP Simon Bridges.
The most recent update, representing 65% of the total vote to be counted, has Uffindell on 8878 votes to Tinetti’s 3754, a margin of 5124 votes.
Act’s Cameron Luxton is on 1519 votes.
The vote count is well ahead of projected schedule. Earlier this week officials said they hoped to have 50% of the vote counted by 9pm, and 95% by 10.30pm. Going by the speed of the count so far it appears the election will be called far earlier than that.