The National Party juggernaut that started on September 23, the election night and had raised an unprecedented hope among the Party supporters of a record fourth term had finally come to a halt with Labour and Green each gaining one seat after the final count of Special Votes.
There is no change in Winston Peters’ New Zealand First Party which remains at nine seats in parliament.
The electoral commission has declared the much awaited official results for the 2017 General Election with National’s final count of seats coming down from 58 to 56 and Labour and Green gaining each to a new total of 46 and eight seats.
With the final vote count of special votes following the widely expected trajectory of National loosing and the Left block gaining a seat each, the final equation has vastly changed.
Now with the Labour-Green block at a new total of 54 seats, a likely coalition with the New Zealand First (9 seats) would result in a total of 63 seats in the parliament of 120 seats. A National-NZ First coalition would have a total of 64 seats only, just one better than the Labour-Green led coalition.
Expectedly, this was a result that Mr Peters was hoping for so as to get a better leverage of making the Labour-Green-NZ First coalition work in the parliament and changing the government.
More details to follow soon.