The new MMP Coromandel electorate was won by Murray McLean of the National Party in 1996. In 1999, Green party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons won the electorate, after then Labour Leader (and Prime Minister after the election) Helen Clark openly encouraged Labour supporters to give their constituency vote to Fitzsimons and their party vote to Labour. The Green Party believes that this was the first time in the world that a Green MP had won an electorate in the first past the post voting system, and it would be the only instance of a Green MP being elected by a New Zealand electorate until the party won Auckland Central at the 2020 election. The electorate returned to National in the 2002 election, with Sandra Goudie the representative. Goudie retired at the .