Wellington, November 03 2023, The Europe Today: Final results from New Zealand’s Oct. 14 election released on Friday show the centre-right National Party will need the support of both the ACT New Zealand and NZ First parties to form a government.
The Electoral Commission said the conservative National Party won 48 seats and right-wing ACT 11 seats, giving them 59 seats in the 122-seat parliament. New Zealand First’s eight seats would give the three parties a majority.
The Commission said Labour New Zealand won 34 seats, the Green Party 15 seats and Te Pati Maori six seats.
Although the Labour Party conceded defeat in the election, right-wing parties were waiting for the final vote to be counted before finalising coalition agreements and forming a new government.
The initial count last month showed National and ACT could form a government as they held a combined 61 seats. National lost two seats after the final count, eroding the majority.
The number of parliamentary seats has also increased – from 121 to 122 – as Te Pati Maori won more electorate seats than it would otherwise would have been allocated from its share of the party vote.
The final vote includes roughly 603,000 special votes, about 21% of the total, including overseas voters or those who cast ballots outside their constituency that were not included in the initial tally.
National has been in talks with ACT and New Zealand First since Oct. 14 about coalition agreements, but there is no defined timeframe for a decision.
National leader Christopher Luxon, who will lead the new government, said on Thursday he did not expect to have formed a government in time to head to the Pacific Island Forum on Wednesday.
“We are ready to go and we want to get this sorted as quickly as possible so that we can get into the work that we all want to get into,” Luxon said.
Under law, New Zealand Parliament must sit within six weeks of the official election results, but there is no date for when a government must be formed.
