New Zealand Election Preliminary Count: National Takes 42 Seats as Governing Coalition Clings to a 67-Seat Majority; Official Result Due November 27
WELLINGTON — New Zealand voted on November 7, and preliminary results released by the Electoral Commission on election night showed Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's National Party winning 42 seats to become the largest party in Parliament. The governing coalition of National, ACT and New Zealand First took 67 seats combined — a bare majority in a Parliament swollen to about 130 seats by overhang seats. With a large number of special votes still uncounted, the official result will not be declared until November 27, and the final shape of the next government remains uncertain.
The party vote was nearly tied: Labour edged National 29.31 percent to 29.26 percent, a margin of only about a thousand votes — the first time since 1981 that National has won the most seats while losing the popular vote. Labour took 36 seats and the Greens 16. The centrist Opportunity Party won about 6.0 percent of the party vote and seven seats, becoming the first new party to enter Parliament since 2011. National's sweep of electorate seats created an overhang that squeezed its own list seats: deputy leader and Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Speaker Gerry Brownlee both failed to return to Parliament.
Luxon told supporters in Auckland that National was once again the largest party in Parliament and that his coalition had a pathway to forming the next government, but conceded the race was too close to call. Labour leader Chris Hipkins did not concede. An estimated 300,000 to 700,000 special votes, including ballots cast overseas, remain to be counted; the Electoral Commission will declare the official result on November 27, and coalition negotiations are expected to take weeks.
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(Source: Electoral Commission, New Zealand)
Source: Electoral Commission (New Zealand
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