Christchurch East

The electorate is based on the eastern part of the City of Christchurch. When the electorate was first formed through the Representation Act 1870, the western boundary of the electorate was Colombo Street. Unlike today, the eastern boundary was away from the coast; rather, the electorate covered the coastal regions. The electorate is bounded in the east by the Pacific Ocean and in the north by the Waimakariri River. Since the 2008 election, the western and southern boundary followed Main North Road, Marshland Road, North Parade, Dudley Creek, the Avon River, Keyes Road and Pages Road, before cutting through the Bromley wastewater treatment plant to Cuthberts Road. The boundary then followed Cuthberts Road, Breezes Road and Bridge Street to the Avon River, before following the Avon through the Avon Heathcote Estuary and out to the Pacific Ocean. The following suburbs, in alphabetical order, are at least partially located in the electorate: Aranui, Avondale, Bexley, Bottle Lake, Bridgend, Brooklands, Burwood, Chaneys, Dallington, Kainga, Marshland, New Brighton, North New Brighton, Ouruhia, Parklands, Queenspark, Shirley, South New Brighton, Southshore, Spencerville, Stewarts Gully, Styx, Waimairi Beach, and Wainoni. Slightly more of Bromley was added from at the 2020 redistribution. In the 2025 boundary review, the electorate would gain part of the Linwood-Phillipstown suburbs from . The initial proposal was to include the suburb of Redwood into the electorate, though this was changed due to public consultation. ==History==

Christchurch City East was first created for the by the Representation Act 1870, which was passed to increase the number of general electorates to 74 from the 61 that were used at the . The Representation Act 1870 also disestablished some multi-member electorates, and the three-member City of Christchurch electorate was split up, with one part of it forming the new Christchurch City East electorate. (a young engineer who only recently left Canterbury College and who would become one of the founding members of the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand), and Frederick Cooke (a prominent member of the Socialist Party). Davey was successful. The was contested by Davey (the incumbent), Charles Boxshall (who represented the opposition, which at that point had not formed into a political party), James McCombs (who was an Independent Liberal, i.e. he was not part of a formal party), and Frederick Cooke (who had also contested the previous election standing for the Socialist Party). Davey was re-elected, with McCombs coming second. The Second Ballot Act 1908 provided for second or runoff ballots between the top two candidates where the top candidate did not get an absolute majority. As Davey had obtained 55.56% of the votes, a second ballot was not required in Christchurch East. This left three other candidates in the election: Henry Thacker (who had contested the previous election as an Independent Liberal, but with Davey's withdrawal contested as behalf of the Liberal Party), George Duncan Macfarlane (an auctioneer with no prior political experience who stood for the Reform Party), and Hiram Hunter (who this time contested for the Social Democratic Party, which was the successor to the original Labour Party). Thacker was successful and succeeded Davey.) and Hiram Hunter (who this time contested for the Labour Party, which had been founded in 1916). Thacker served for two terms until 1922 and was Mayor of Christchurch until 1923. Thacker was defeated in the by Tim Armstrong of the Labour Party. The third candidate was W R Devereux, a land agent who stood for the Reform Party. Armstrong was challenged in by S W Richardson, who was the official candidate for the United–Reform Coalition in 1935. Armstrong's death triggered the , which was held on 6 February. The by-election was contested by five candidates, including representatives from the Labour Party, the Labour breakaway party Democratic Labour Party and the National Party. The election was won by the Labour candidate, Mabel Howard, and started her long parliamentary career, which included her becoming the first female cabinet minister in 1947. Howard was confirmed later in 1943 in the general election, where her majority increased substantially (by over 17 percentage points). Dalziel maintained that she was not yet committed to standing, and only formally confirmed on 19 June that she will contest the mayoralty. She confirmed that she will resign from Parliament, thus triggering a by-election in the Christchurch East electorate. Dalziel resigned before the official results were announced. The by-election was since held on 30 November 2013 in the electorate. This was won by Labour's Poto Williams in a convincing victory despite the view that significant population changes since the 2011 Christchurch earthquake made the allegiance to Labour less certain. Williams held Christchurch East in the against National's sitting list MP Jo Hayes. Since Tim Armstrong's 1922 election win, the electorate (for as long as it has existed) has been held by Labour. ==Members of Parliament==

Christchurch East has been represented by eight electorate MPs: Key List MPs Members of Parliament elected from party lists in elections where that person also unsuccessfully contested the Christchurch East electorate. Unless otherwise stated, all MPs' terms began and ended at general elections. ==Election results==

2026 election The next election will be held on 7 November 2026. Candidates for Christchurch East are listed at Candidates in the 2026 New Zealand general election by electorate § Christchurch East. Official results will be available after 27 November 2026. 2023 election 2020 election 2017 election 2014 election 2013 by-election 2011 election Electorate (as at 26 November 2011): 39,708 2008 election 2005 election 2002 election 1999 election 1996 election 1943 election 1943 by-election 1938 election 1935 election 1931 election 1928 election 1925 election 1922 election 1919 election 1914 election 1911 election 1908 election 1905 election 1871 election ==Table footnotes==