The electorate was created in 1853 and existed until 1890. In the
1890 election, the
Akaroa electorate covered the town of Lyttelton. The Lyttelton electorate was re-established for the
1893 election and existed until 1996, the first
mixed-member proportional (MMP) election, when it was included in the Banks Peninsula electorate. The nomination meeting for the first election was held on 15 August 1853 at the Reading Room in Lyttelton. The first election was held two days later on a Wednesday at the Resident Magistrate's Office in Lyttelton, with
Charles Simeon as Resident Magistrate acting as the returning officer. The election was contested by
Christopher Edward Dampier, the solicitor of the
Canterbury Association, and
James FitzGerald, who in the previous month had been elected
Canterbury's first
Superintendent. FitzGerald won the election by 55 votes to 45. FitzGerald represented the electorate until 1857, when he resigned due to ill health.
Crosbie Ward won the resulting by-election in May 1858. Ward was re-elected unopposed on 25 January 1861.
Edward Allen Hargreaves won the 1866 election. Macfarlan died in office on 9 October 1868.
John Thomas Peacock won the 2 November
1868 by-election. At the , Peacock was re-elected unopposed. He held the seat until April 1873, when was promoted to the
New Zealand Legislative Council (the upper house). He resigned from Parliament on 5 April 1873. The resulting
by-election on 19 May 1873 was won by his brother in law,
Henry Richard Webb, who beat
Hugh Murray-Aynsley. At the 28 December
1875 general election, the Lyttelton electorate was contested by the same two candidates as the 1873 by-election, but this time, Murray-Aynsley was successful.
John Joyce represented Lyttelton from 1887 to 1890 and from 1893 to 1899. The electorate was held from 1913 by
James McCombs for the
Social Democrats and then for Labour; he was succeeded by his wife when he died, and then his son when she also died. The
1925 general election was contested by
Melville Lyons and the incumbent,
James McCombs. The original count resulted in a tie of 4,900 votes each. The returning officer gave his casting vote to Lyons and declared him elected. A recount was demanded, and on 3 December 1925, an amended result of 4890 votes for Lyons and 4884 votes for McCombs was determined, with the differences in the counts explained by counting informal votes in a different way. Lyons' election was declared void on 13 March 1926, and the previous holder, McCombs, was restored as the holder of the electorate. The
22nd Parliament had its first sitting on 16 June 1926, hence Lyons had not been sworn in before his election was declared void. The had a close result, with McCombs just 32 votes ahead of the
United–Reform Coalition candidate, Christchurch civil engineer Frederick Willie Freeman. The seat has been held by National and
Norman Kirk transferred to the safer (for Labour)
Sydenham seat in 1969, just as his predecessor
Harry Lake transferred to the safer (for National)
Fendalton seat in 1960.
Election results Key Table footnotes: ==Election results==