The electorate was created in 1861, and preceded by the electorate from 1853 to 1860 and then briefly the electorate in 1860. It was a two-member electorate from 1876 to 1881. The first representative was Henry Powning Stark, who won the election on 19 February 1861. There were speculations that Douglas Maclean would be the conservative candidate in the Napier electorate in the upon his return from England instead of George Henry Swan, but this was not correct. Swan contested the election and was successful against the Liberal Party candidate Michael Gannon. In the, Swan was challenged by the Liberal Party candidate Samuel Carnell, with the latter being successful against the incumbent. In the, Carnell in turn was challenged by the conservative candidate Douglas Maclean, with Maclean achieving a large majority against the incumbent. In the, the incumbent, Bill Barnard of the Labour Party, was challenged by John Butler of the Reform Party as the official candidate of the United–Reform Coalition, and United Party memberVigor Brown as an Independent. Brown, at the time Mayor of Napier and previously MP for Napier for many years, withdrew just before the election, but too late for his name to be excluded from the ballot papers. The election was won by Barnard. Labour's Russell Fairbrother was first elected in the electorate in the 2002 election, replacing long-standing MP Geoff Braybrooke. In the, Chris Tremain defeated Fairbrother, winning the electorate for the National Party for the first time since the. In the 2008 election, Tremain retained the electorate with an increased majority over Fairbrother. In the, Tremain beat Labour's Stuart Nash. Tremain announced in September 2013 that he would not contest the 2014 election. Wayne Walford succeeded Tremain as National's candidate for the seat, Stuart Nash contested the electorate for the Labour Party for the second time, and Garth McVicar stood for the Conservative Party. McVicar had a high-profile due to his previous involvement with the Sensible Sentencing Trustlobby group. In July 2014, Walford was referred to Police by the Electoral Commission for breaching the Electoral Act by failing to display an authorisation statement on his campaign vehicle. Nash had a majority of 3,850 votes over Walford. McVicar's 7,603 votes split the traditional National Party votes, which helped Nash win the election.
Unless otherwise stated, all MPs terms began and ended at a general election. Key
single-member electorate
multi-member electorate
single-member electorate
List MPs
Members of Parliament elected from party lists in elections where that person also unsuccessfully contested the Napier electorate. Unless otherwise stated, all MPs terms began and ended at general elections.
