Brash concedes after National lose seat

National leader Don Brash formally conceded defeat this morning after his party lost a seat in the final election count.

Speaking to a press conference after the final results were declared, Dr Brash acknowledged that National had little chance of seizing power from Labour.

"I therefore formally concede on behalf of the National Party that we do not have enough seats to claim a mandate," he said.

The final election results confirmed that Labour leader Helen Clark should be able to form the next government.

The only change after the final count, including special votes, is a reduction in the number of MPs to 121 with National losing one MP to have a caucus of 48.

Labour has been confirmed with 50 seats, New Zealand First seven, the Greens six, the Maori Party four, United Future three, ACT two and Progressives one.

Helen Clark, who also has the vote of Progressive leader Jim Anderton guaranteed, now needs to build a majority of 61 to pass crucial legislation.

She has begun talks with New Zealand First, the Greens, Maori Party and United Future to gain support for a Labour-led minority government. She is expected to continue the talks on Monday.

The final results showed that 2,286,190 votes were counted with a turn out of 80.9 per cent of enrolled voters.

Labour picked up 41.1 per cent support or 935,319 votes, National had 39.1 per cent or 889,813 votes.

New Zealand First will be the third largest party in Parliament after picking up 5.7 per cent of the vote and the Greens gained 5.3 per cent.

The final result means that National's Katrina Shanks, the last MP to come into Parliament on the election night result, will now not be sworn in as an MP.

The reduction in size of Parliament is due to the Maori party picking up proportionately more party votes in the final count than it did on election night.

Under the provisional results the Maori party won four electorate seats but was only entitled to two MPs by the party vote measure.

This led to an overhang of two MPs, because of their increase in the vote this overhang has been reduced to one MP.

No electorate results changed in the final count.

Labour's Otaki MP Darren Hughes held on to his seat by 382 votes. His was the most marginal result on the night.

Major parties have said they were not expecting any major changes in the results due to special votes, though Labour and the Greens had expressed hope they would pick up a new MP.

The next on the Green list -- Nandor Tanczos -- will not be returning to Parliament, due to the Greens failure to pick up more special votes.

The results will become final if no one seeks a judicial recount in the District Court by October 5.

If there is no recount the results will be gazetted on October 7.

If there is a recount this could be delayed for around five days.

Electorate MPs could also face legal challenges for their electorate victories, but this would not delay the formation of the next government or parliament.

- NZPA