The election was won by the Labour candidate, Mabel Howard, and started her long parliamentary career, which included her becoming the first female cabinet minister in 1947.

[2] Mabel Howard, the daughter of former member of parliament Ted Howard, had wanted to follow her father in the 1939 Christchurch South by-election caused by his death, but although she was the favoured candidate by the local branch of the party,[3] the Labour Party hierarchy chose Robert Macfarlane instead.

Howard believed that back then, she was opposed due to her connections to John A. Lee, who was seen as a radical within the party.

A former vice-president of the General Labourers' Union in Timaru, he was seen as running a personal campaign against Howard over a difference of opinion.

Results of the Christchurch East general election were:[9] There were 14,835 people on the electoral roll, of which 9,644 voted in the 6 February 1943 by-election.