New Zealanders faced weeks of uncertainty on Sunday over who will govern the country after their general election, with the current coalition holding a slim majority but a potentially decisive slice of votes still to count.
But special votes, around 14% of the total, remain to be counted, the commission said. They will be announced with the final count on November 27.
These — including ballots from overseas New Zealanders and people voting outside their electorates — have historically favoured the left.
CENTRIST OPPORTUNITY PARTY MAY PLAY KEY ROLE
Sixty-six seats are needed for a majority. Until a coalition to govern New Zealand for the next three years is formed, Luxon will head a caretaker government. Neither the prime minister nor opposition leader Chris Hipkins of the Labour Party claimed victory in their speeches following the election, which has been dominated by talk of a soft economy and the cost of living. National’s low popular vote means the party is set to lose several senior lawmakers in the next parliament, including Finance Minister Nicola Willis. Willis remains in the role for the next four weeks.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s National Party and its partners ACT and New Zealand First were on track for 67 of the currently projected 131-seat parliament, Electoral Commission preliminary results of Saturday’s vote showed. National and a minor party, Te Pati Maori, each won a disproportionately high share of constituency seats relative to their popular vote support due to tactical voting, reshaping the balance of seats in parliament and sparking debate about the electoral system, said political commentator Ben Thomas.
“It certainly looks as if we’re on track for the least-proportional parliament that we’ve had, as a result of the vagaries of the rules around how electorate seats interact with the parliament as a whole,” Thomas said. Simeon Brown, a National lawmaker, said the party had lost some significant people, making the result “bittersweet”.
