mana wahine contested only two elections. the first was the taranaki-king country by-election in 1998. the mana wahine candidate, mary gilmore, received 7 of the 20,225 valid votes. in the 1999 general election, mana wahine failed to submit a party list, with kopu saying that she missed the deadline by just minutes. the party nevertheless contested twelve electorate seats, gaining a total of 1,082 votes across the country. kopu herself contested the waiariki electorate, and gained sixth place with 1.70% of the vote.