Todd McClay has stormed home winning the Rotorua electorate by more than 7000 votes.
His rival Tamati Coffey was humble in defeat saying he fought a good fight, but it wasn't enough in the end.
As at 11.30pm Mr McClay had 17,180 votes - Mr Coffey won 10,079.
New Zealand First candidate Fletcher Tabuteau picked up 2239 votes, but will get into Parliament on the list.
11.55pm
Conservative Party candidate Michael Davidson won 545 and ACT candidate Lyall Russell won 120 votes.
The National Party also won the party vote with 16,046 votes with Labour second on 6238, New Zealand First on 3735 and the Greens won 1884 votes.
"I'm extremely pleased and grateful to the people of the Rotorua electorate for showing confidence in me and giving me the opportunity to work hard and deliver for them," Mr McClay said.
He spent the night with about 200 party faithful at the Rotorua Club.
"This has been my best campaign, it will take a day or two for us to digest what's happened but I'm extremely humbled by the result and tomorrow will look at what we need to do in the electorate in the next three years," Mr McClay said.
Mr Coffey said he will weigh up his political future in the next few days after spending the night at the Rotorua Citizens Club with his supporters.
"It's been really tough fighting the John Key tidal wave, it was a steep learning curve for me and I learned a lot.
"I think we really shook the tree and got lots of people motivated and fought the good fight.
"We did everything an opposition candidate should do."
Mr Coffey said he called Mr McClay to congratulate him about 10.30pm.
"We need to keep our heads up and think about the next move," Mr Coffey said.
- Read Monday's Rotorua Daily Post for full interviews and reaction from the 2014 election.
10.30pm
All votes have been counted in the Rotorua electorate and Todd McClay will represent the city for a third term. His winning margin was cut by 256 on the 2011 election.
Results:
McClay 17,108
Coffey 10,082
Tabuteau 2237
Davidson 539
Russell 133
10.20pm
Fletcher Tabuteau has made it into Parliament on the New Zealand First party list.
98.6 per cent of the votes have been counted in Rotorua.
McClay 16,924
Coffey 9922
Tabuteau 2202
Davidson 534
Russell 133
9.20pm
The votes are being counted - 62.2 per cent of polling booths counted in Rotorua.
Todd McClay says he is cautiously optimistic about half way into the count for the Rotorua electorate.
"I'm really pleased with how the count is going so far, but there is still a long way to go.
"I'm surrounded by one of the biggest groups of supporters I have had at any election and we're all looking forward to see the final outcome."
His rival Tamati Coffey has not given up saying he and a nervous support team were watching and waiting to see how the count progressed.
"Everyone has a knot in their stomach, there's still a long way to go," Mr Coffey said.
McClay 10,376
Coffey 5717
Tabuteau 1276
National 9725
Labour 3857
NZ First 2112
9.08pm
50 per cent of the Rotorua votes have now been cast.
9pm
45 percent of the Rotorua votes have been counted.
McClay 7082
Coffey 3778
Tabuteau 908
Davidson 210
Russell 50
8.37pm
With more than a quarter of the votes counted in the Rotorua electorate Todd McClay holds his lead. The National Party proves very popular as well.
McClay 4797
Coffey 2594
Tabuteau 596
National 4451
Labour 1644
NZ First 992
8.20pm
Todd McClay 4748
Tamati Coffey 2545
Fletcher Tabutaeu 590
Michael Davidson 143
Lyall Russell 29
National 4405
Labour 1614
New Zealand First 979
Green 475
Nationally 20.4 per cent of votes have been counted.
8pm
National have 4336 of the party vote in Rotorua ahead of Labour on 1612. Todd McClay has 4680 of the electorate vote with Tamati Coffey on 2534.
7.40pm
In the electorate race Todd McClay is ahead with 866 of the votes counted, Tamati Coffey has 405 votes so far.
At 7.20pm there had been 199 votes for Todd McClay and 59 for Tamati Coffey. National were leading the party vote with 180 and New Zealand First were in second with 40.