Six candidates stand in Taieri, where Labour's Ingrid Leary is the sitting MP
Six candidates are standing in the Taieri electorate at the 2026 election. The sitting Labour MP, Ingrid Leary, is one of them. The others are Matthew French, Mark Patterson, Scott Willis, Robbie Byars and Anna Knight, according to RNZ.
Robbie Byars is standing for ACT. He is a South Otago dairy farmer and an Otago Regional Councillor. Anna Knight, a translator, is running for the Alliance Party.
Taieri is an electorate in the south of the South Island. It stretches from the southern suburbs of Dunedin to Balclutha, and inland towards the Rock and Pillar Range. Before boundary changes in 2020, the seat was called Dunedin South.
Ingrid Leary won the seat in 2020 with a majority of 12,398 votes over National's Liam Kernaghan. At the 2023 election she defeated Matthew French by 1443 votes. In the party vote that year, Labour edged out National by less than one percent. The NZ First party vote rose from 1179 in 2020 to 3259 in 2023.
Voter turnout in Taieri at the 2023 election was 81.11%, according to official election results. Scott Willis placed third in the electorate vote.
The Otago Daily Times has described Taieri as a Labour stronghold facing a National attack ahead of the 2026 election. The paper reported that the seat could attract attention on election night if the contest is as close as predicted.
The New Zealand Herald has also published a poll of polls electorate predictor, an interactive model that estimates results in individual seats.
The Taieri contest is one of several southern electorate races the Otago Daily Times has covered in debates this month. It held a Taieri debate with Ingrid Leary taking part as the sitting MP.
