Hamilton West (New Zealand electorate)

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Hamilton West is a New Zealand Parliamentary electorate.

It is currently held by Martin Gallagher MP^[1] of the Labour Party. Based on the 2005 voting, it is regarded as a marginal seat in 2008.

1 Population Centres
2 History
3 Members of Parliament for Hamilton West
- 3.1 List MPs from Hamilton West
4 Election results
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Population Centres

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The electorate is mainly urban, and covers the western part of the city of Hamilton.

[edit] History

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The earlier Hamilton electorate dates from 1922. In 1969 it was renamed Hamilton West. In 1972 the additional electorate of Hamilton East was created.

Every party since 1972 that has won Hamilton East and its sister seat of Hamilton West has gone on to form the government, earning these seats a reputation as bellwether seats; although this trend has been reversed since 1993, when Labour captured both Hamilton seats from National, but failed to win a parliamentary majority.

Dianne Yates, who has represented the city in Parliament, as the constituency member for Hamilton East from 1993-96 and again from 2002-05 (and other times as a list MP) has announced her decision to retire from Parliament before the 2008 election^[2], her retirement from Parliament took effect on the 28th of March 2008. In doing so, she will be the first Hamilton-based MP to choose the date of their departure in over thirty years (The earlier MP was Sir Leslie Munro, who retired in 1972).

[edit] Members of Parliament for Hamilton West

Unless otherwise stated, all MPs terms began and started at general elections.

Name	Party	Elected	Left Office	Reason
Leslie Munro	National	1969	1972	retired
Dorothy Jelicich	Labour	1972	1975	defeated
Mike Minogue	National	1975, 1978, 1981	1984	defeated
Trevor Mallard	Labour	1984, 1987	1990	defeated
Grant Thomas	National	1990	1993	defeated
Martin Gallagher	Labour	1993	1996	defeated
Bob Simcock	National	1996	1999	defeated
Martin Gallagher	Labour	1999, 2002, 2005	incumbent

[edit] List MPs from Hamilton West

Members of Parliament elected from party lists in elections where that person also unsuccessfully contested the Hamilton West electorate. Unless otherwise stated, all MPs terms began and ended at general elections.