1974 Sydenham by-election


The Sydenham by-election 1974 was a by-election held in the electorate during the term of the 37th New Zealand Parliament on 2 November 1974.

Background

The by-election was caused by the death of incumbent MP Norman Kirk of the Labour Party, who at the time was Prime Minister, on 31 August 1974. Sydenham was an electorate in Christchurch and was a safe Labour seat, the party having held it since its recreation in 1946. This was New Zealand's first parliamentary election with a voting age of 18 years.

Candidates

, who had replaced Kirk as Prime Minister, was given the option by Labour of replacing Kirk in Sydenham but chose to remain in his home electorate of Tasman despite it being a more marginal electorate.
Initially the three Labour electorate representatives wanted John Kirk, Norman Kirk's son, while the three head office nominees wanted the party secretary John Wybrow. Norman Kirk previously had talked to Warren Freer very frankly about his family, and made it quite clear that if any of his sons wished to have a political career, he hoped it would be Robert or Philip, but not John. Gerald O'Brien, the party vice-president who was on the panel to choose the Labour candidate, switched his vote to John Kirk, who got the nod.
The National Party decided not to stand a candidate, although previous National candidate Saul Goldsmith from Wellington stood as an Independent National candidate. Eight candidates stood in total.

Results

The by-election was won by John Kirk, Norman Kirk's son. This was John Kirk's entry into Parliament and he would hold the Sydenham electorate for ten years. John Kirk received 63% of the vote; Joe Poundsford of the Social Credit Party came second with 17%.
The table below contains the election results: