Clark says she has numbers to form minority government

11.55pm UPDATE - Helen Clark is set to become Prime Minister of New Zealand for a second term, with the Labour Party increasing its election night share of votes by 2.5 points to 41 per cent of the vote.

That means Labour has three more seats in Parliament, 52 seats up from 49 in 1999.

But the Prime Minister's gamble in calling an early election to gain an absolute majority for Labour and Jim Anderton's Progessive Coalition has failed.

Mr Anderton's party, formed after he split from the Alliance, got 1.8 per cent of the election night vote and two seats.

Helen Clark said a minority coalition was the most likely option although she said she had talked to the Greens and had their support to form a government.

The election had delivered "a status quo result" with majority support for parties of the centre-left, she said.

The Greens got 6.4 per cent of the election night vote, giving the party eight seats, one more than they got in 1999.

The Greens supported Labour in the last Parliament and have offered that support again.

Their hardline stance on genetic engineering is a problem for Miss Clark, but the Greens' support would be assured until October next year when a decision will have to be made on whether to extend the moratorium on GE field trials.

Helen Clark said tonight she had the support of the Greens to form a Labour-led minority Government.

"The Greens have indicated that they will support us forming a government. We know there is the issue of the moratorium, which they do not agree with," she said to reporters after a victory speech at her Auckland electorate headquarters.

"However it is clear to me the general will of Parliament is that moratorium should come off."

United Future is another potential supporter for Labour. Rising from the relative obscurity of 0.54 per cent on election night in 1999, the party led by Peter Dunne tonight scored 6.8 of the vote and increased its number of seats in Parliament from one to nine.

Mr Dunne said he had not received a telephone call from the Prime Minister but he took her comments on television about a status quo result for the parties of the centre left as to not exclude United Future.

He said if Helen Clark wanted to run a minority coalition Government he could come to some arrangement to support Labour on supply and confidence. But if an arrangement could not be made with Labour he could not give such a guarantee.

The National Party slumped to its worst ever result, getting just 22 per cent of the vote, compared with 30.5 per cent on election night three years ago.


National's poor showing under leader Bill English ended speculation that a centre-right coalition might be formed with the ACT Party, New Zealand First and United Future.

In the unlikely event that they would all agree to form a coalition, they would still be short of a majority.


New Zealand First more than doubled its support, its vote rising from 4.26 to 10.58 per cent.

Act maintained its polling of roughly seven per cent.

The Alliance Party was wiped out, as leader Laila Harre failed to win the Waitakere electorate and her party got just over one per cent of the party vote - well below the five per cent threshold.

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Graphic: Seats in the 47th Parliament

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