History
The first Otago seat was created in 1978, replacing the Otago Central seat.
The Otago seat was created in 1996 election for the first MMP election out of parts of an older Otago seat which did not include Oamaru or Alexandra, but did include the South Canterbury town of Twizel. Its size remained relatively unchanged at the boundary review set up after the 1996 and 2006 censuses, but a major upheaval of boundaries has seen Otago seat disappear and the electorate split between the Waitaki and Clutha-Southland electorates. At the same time, its boundary shifts northwards to take in a large chunk of Aoraki, including the towns of Temuka, Twizel, Kurow and Waimate. Because of the sweeping changes to the seat's boundaries, the electorate was renamed Waitaki.
Although Otago was a reasonably safe seat for the National Party, that party's poor showing at the 2002 election saw it elect a Labour MP, David Parker. Three years later, a swing to National in provincial New Zealand unseated Parker in favour of National's Jacqui Dean.
Read more about this topic: Otago (New Zealand Electorate)
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