KEY POINTS:
A sombre mood hung over the packed home of Progressive Party leader Jim Anderton tonight despite him comfortably winning his way back into Parliament through Christchurch's Wigram electorate.
Mr Anderton, 70, was pleased to claim about half of the votes in the electorate, but expressed his disappointment at the nationwide swing to the centre-right that will leave him in opposition in the next term.
He congratulated John Key for his victory and promised to be a "guerilla fighter" in opposition, watching every move the National-led Government made. Mr Anderton also praised Helen Clark for standing down as Labour's leader in a "glamorous" fashion.
Supporters who filled his home, just 100m from his electorate office, had mixed emotions over the night's events.
"Congratulations and commiserations," one said.
Another Anderton supporter, Sidonie Bradbury-Moore, could not contain her disappointment in the overall election result: "I can't believe New Zealanders could be so stupid."
Mr Anderton said it was a shame to have such a result after "nine years of hard work" by the Labour-led coalition.
He said his party had come from a long way from not even registering in the polls to get almost 1 per cent of the party vote. His hope was that smaller parties like his would, in future, benefit from more "nurturing" by the larger parties.
Mr Anderton's wife, Carole, said she looked forward to seeing more of her husband, and him slowing down now he was no longer a minister.