elections - New Zealand

National Party wins parliamentary elections

Saturday 08 November 2008

John Key's centre-right National Party has won the New Zealand parliamentary elections promising "politics of aspiration", putting an end to nine years of Helen Clark's Labour Party.

John Key's centre-right National Party   swept to power on a theme of change in New Zealand's elections Saturday, ending the nine year reign of Helen Clark's Labour Party.
   
Key's promise to foster the "politics of aspiration" struck a chord with New Zealand's three million voters, who gave the rich former investment banker a mandate to form a conservative alliance with the small ACT and United Future parties.
   
"In their hundreds and thousands across the country they have voted for change," Key said in his acceptance speech to supporters in Auckland amid scenes of jubilation.
   
"Today, New Zealanders have voted for action, for a safer, more prosperous and more ambitious New Zealand."
   
The election success was the realisation of a boyhood dream to become prime minister for Key, who only entered parliament in 2002 after amassing a fortune estimated at 50 million dollars (29 million US).
   
The centre-right National Party won 45.5 percent of the vote or 59 seats in a 122 seat Parliament. Key will have a majority with allies, the right-wing ACT Party with five seats and one more from United Future's Peter Dunne.
   
Since the complex mixed member proportional (MMP) electoral system was introduced in 1996, no single party has been able to control the parliament without the help of minor parties.
   
Key added a sober note to a night of celebration when he said the country of 4.3 million people -- which slipped into recession in the first half of the year -- would have to confront the economic fallout from the global financial crisis.
   
"We must make the most of our advantages because the state of the global economy and the global financial crisis means that the road ahead may well be a rocky one," he said.
   
During the campaign he promised to cut personal taxes, increase help for those who lose their jobs and boost spending on infrastructure projects to help keep the economy ticking over.
   
Clark was gracious in defeat and said she would step down after 15 years as leader of the centre-left Labour, which governed with the help of three minor parties after the 2005 election.
   
"As is obvious to all, tonight has not been our night," Clark said in Auckland as some supporters cheered her and others wept.
   
"I congratulate John Key and the National Party on the result they have achieved."
   
But she said she hoped her government's social policies would not be slashed by the incoming government.
   
"I utter one fear, and that is that I do hope that all we have worked to put in place doesn't go up in flames in a bonfire created by the right wing of politics," she said.
   
Clark's supporters reacted in shock when she told them she would resign as leader of the party she has headed since 1993.
   
"My job as leader of the Labour Party is complete. I will be standing down and I will be expecting my Labour Party colleagues to elect a new leader before Christmas."
   
The election result was in line with polls before the election which showed New Zealanders were ready for change after nine years under Labour.
   
Clark was respected as a competent manager and campaigned on the theme that the untested Key, who first entered Parliament in 2002, was too inexperienced to deal with the fallout of the global financial crisis.
   
One of the notable casualties of the election was New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, the controversial veteran politician who served as foreign affairs minister for the last three years in the Clark government.
   
But another old warhorse returned in Roger Douglas, who as finance minister in the Labour government from 1984 introduced radical economic reforms.
   
The 70-year-old Douglas was elected -- 18 years after he left parliament -- as a legislator for the ACT party which he helped found in 1993.