National Party candidate Sam Uffindell has won the Tauranga electorate by-election and will be Tauranga's new MP.

Preliminary results on Saturday night only two hours after polling booths closed show Uffindell has a margin of over 6000 votes and a resounding victory over Labour's Jan Tinetti.

With 100 per cent of the vote counted Uffindell has 10.931 votes with Labour List MP Tinetti coming second with 4893 votes, a margin of 6038.

"It's fantastic," says Uffindell. "I'm so stoked that we can deliver for everyone here. I'm very happy with the results."

He is celebrating with his parents, wife Julia, National leader Christopher Luxon, Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller, and Tauranga electorate National party members at the Tauranga Club in Devonport Towers.

New Tauranga MP, National's Sam Uffindell with his wife Julia after his win in the Tauranga By-election on Saturday night. Photo: Rosalie Liddle Crawford.

National Party leader Christopher Luxon says that Uffindell's win shows that Tauranga people are sick of the current government and he is looking forward to leading National to a win in the next General Election in 2023.

Uffindell was chosen to represent National for the Tauranga seat following the resignation of former Tauranga MP Simon Bridges.

One of his first objectives as the new MP is to propose a member's bill designed to give Police the power to disrupt gang convoys, allowing Police to issue $500 infringements and impound vehicles for 28 days.

"I'm going to get our roads improved, we going to tackle crime and gangs, we're going to ease the cost of living crisis, and we're going to work to restore local democracy.

"We want Tauranga to be the greatest city to work, to play and to raise a family in, in New Zealand, and that's where we're heading."

After applause the large crowd of National supporters burst into singing 'For he's a jolly good fellow'.

The National Party has held the Tauranga electorate since 2005.

Who is Sam Uffindell?

Uffindell is currently the Head of Financial Economic Crime for Rabobank and owns a small agribusiness based in the Bay of Plenty. He is expected to be flying to Wellington for meetings on Monday morning, after first giving his children Easter eggs, something he'd promised them if he won the by-election.

Sam Uffindell with wife Julia and their three children Lily, Zippora and Teddy. Photo: Supplied.

Eager to gain international experience after studying at the University of Otago, Uffindell spent ten years working in senior banking roles in Sydney, also gaining a Master of International Law and International Relations from the University of New South Wales. Before settling in the Bay of Plenty with his family last year, he was Vice President of Deutsche Bank in Singapore.

A hard worker with an already stellar career, he has been working as Rabobank New Zealand's Head of Financial Economic Crime as well as establishing a family business in the Bay of Plenty.

Born in September 1983 in Auckland, Sam is the eldest of three children. His father Peter owned a computer company and mother Jennifer has been an English lecturer.

Sam says as a child he loved rugby, cricket and summer holidays fishing in the Coromandel.

'My childhood was largely spent outside trying to emulate my sporting heroes. I completed school as a boarder at St Paul's Collegiate in Hamilton. I then headed to the University of Otago where I earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Studies, a Bachelor of Commerce in Management.

As well as heading up Rabobank New Zealand's Financial Economic Crime department, Sam is also the director of a small company.

'Julia and I have developed a family business manufacturing and supplying organic fertiliser,” says Sam.

'We mainly supply to kiwifruit orchardists and run this from her family's orchard in Te Puke.”

Jan Tinetti, Labour

Labour's candidate Jan Tinetti who was amongst party supporters at the Tauranga Fishing Club at Sulphur Point on Saturday night, says she is very happy with the results.

"I'm really happy with the turn out so far and the vote," says Tinetti."This is very close to where we landed on the electorate vote in 2017.

"Coming into this campaign, that was my aim, to get this vote close to the 2017. I didn't want to lose ground from that. You can see that it's very close to that margin now where we landed."

Deputy Leader of the Labour Party & MP for Te Tai Tokerau Kelvin Davis with Labour List MPs Jan Tinetti, Angie Warren-Clark and Tāmati Coffey. Photo: Rosalie Liddle Crawford.

"I couldn't be happier, to see what's happened here today. We've run a really strong campaign on the ground, and the seat is a National stronghold. They should be winning this. And they should be winning in a by-election by a huge margin.

"The reason I say that is because we knew we could get about a half turn out to what we'd normally get in a general election. And we also know in a by-election it's not an equal half that turns out.

"And in a by-election, it's very hard for the incumbent government in by-elections traditionally across the country. So to see us maintain what we had in 2017 is just superb. So I'm really excited."

Tinetti didn't have to contend with the Greens and NZ First as neither party ran a candidate in the by-election.

"I imagine we would have picked up some of the left vote that would normally go to other parties, but hopefully those people will stay with us in the electorate vote in future.

"The good thing that we've picked up out of this, is we have mobilised our team ready for 2023. Our team is all set to go now, it's been a good practice run for us, and we're really looking forward to the 2023 campaign"

Labour party leader and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has not visited Tauranga during Tinetti's election campaign.

"Three times she was going to be coming to visit," says Tinetti. "The first time she had Covid. The second time her trip to the States got extended because she got an invite to go to the White House, so it was Presiendet Biden or the Tauranga campaign. And the third time was this Thursday and she had come down with the flu. She was devasted, and contacted me several times.

"What she has said is that she wants to come to a future event with our volunteers here to say thank you to them."

Cameron Luxton, ACT Party

ACT Party candidate Cameron Luxton has finished third in the Tauranga by-election with 1991 votes and NZ Outdoors and Freedom Party candidate Sue Grey in fourth place with 917 votes.

"The point of the whole campaign is to make sure that Tauranga has a chance to see that there is an option for real change," says Luxton. "We've almost tripled the personal vote from 2020. So that's showing that Tauranga is ready for real change, and that's what we've been offering.

"We will continue to offer, and in 2023 we'll be back again pushing it just as strong."

He's been doing last minute campaigning right up until the final moments and is now looking forward to spending some time on his business and with his family.

"I'm hitting the surf tomorrow."

ACT Party candidate Cameron Luxton at Jack Dusty's on Saturday night. Photo: Rosalie Liddle Crawford.

One point of difference between Luxton's and Tinettti's campaigns, is the number of times the ACT Party and Labour Party leaders came to Tauranga during the campaign to support their candidates. ACT Party leader says he has lost count of the number of visits he's made in support of Luxton but thinks it must be around a dozen trips.

On Saturday night, ACT"s Tauranga campaign committee and members of ACT's caucus gathered at Jack Dusty's Ale House at Bureta. Party leader David Seymour, party president Tim Jago, as well as Brooke van Velden, James McDowall and Damien Smith were present for the election night party.

"We're grateful for Tauranga, we're proud of Cam, and we're hopeful for the future," says Seymour.

"I love election campaigns, because you get the most voter feedback. People think politics is about talking, but it's actually about listening. And what we've heard from Tauranga, I think sets the course for New Zealand over the next year towards the election."

The ACT party team at Jack Dusty's. Photo: Rosalie Liddle Crawford.

Seymour says this election is showing that people want real change.

"ACT is a very attractive proposition for people who want real change," says Seymour. "We have talent in our candidates, we've got capacity in our campaign team, and we've got ideas that address people's concerns which are around the crime, the cost of living, the infrastructure, the democracy. These are very real concerns that ACT is tailor made to address for people. And I think we saw that today."

Luxton had a group of volunteers and supporters helping him during his campaign.

"The amazing thing about democracy is that it's 100 per cent voluntary," says Seymour.

"My heart goes out to the people who have jobs, have lives, have families, but they gave a little bit extra to make our democracy work. That really warms my heart."

NZ Outdoors and Freedoms Candidate Sue Grey with her supporters waiting on election results. Supplied Photo.

Allan Cawood with his ONE Party supporters on Saturday night, waiting on election results. Photo: Supplied.

There were 19,403 votes counted.

This is not the formal declaration of results. The official results, including special declaration and overseas votes of the Tauranga By-Election 2022 are expected to be available on Friday July 1, according to the Electoral Commission.