Marama Fox, Māori Party co-leader and candidate for Ikaroa-Rāwhiti, has a battle on her hands.
Preliminary vote counts with a total of 17.1 booths counted show Marama Fox is trailing Labour's Meka Whaitiri.
Meka Whaitiri currently has 3,759 votes and Marama Fox is on 2,322 votes.
Māori Party co-leader Marama Fox is facing the battle of her political career. If the polls are accurate and she doesn’t claim the Ikaroa-Rāwhiti seat, she will have to rely on the party vote to get her back to Parliament.
The Māori Party aren't rating very well in preliminary vote counts with a national total vote count so far of just 7,399 on 1.1%.
Fox spoke to reporter Eru Paranihi about whether she believes she will claim the Ikaroa-Rawhiti seat and if her party will reach the threshold.
Marama Fox entered Government and became the Māori Party co-leader last election in September 2014.
From Wellington in the south to Potaka and inland to the Tarawera township, the Ikaroa-Rāwhiti region is a long and vast electorate. It includes towns like Gisborne, Wairoa, Napier, Hastings, Masterton and the Hutt.
