Poll not exactly headline news

By DITA DE BONI and ALAN PERROTT

What international coverage there was of New Zealand's general election focused overwhelmingly on the potential relationship between Labour and the Greens.

Except for the world's largest newspapers, most of the press devoted only briefs to the result.

The amount of speculation about how the Greens would shape a coalition government perhaps reflects the international Green movement's effect on politics, especially in Scandinavia, Germany and Canada.

The Sydney Morning Herald said the result meant the Clark Government would be reliant on minor parties. But the return of a significant Green presence and the arrival of United Future would help curb the Prime Minister's "authoritarian bent".

Its Auckland correspondent, Louise Williams, said the GM row had overshadowed the campaign and labelled the election a "disaster" for National's Bill English.

There would be a lot of work ahead healing the divisions created by NZ First's "openly racist" campaign.

Sydney's Sunday Telegraph said Helen Clark's plan to take advantage of good poll results by calling an early election had backfired and she would have to endure several weeks of horsetrading.

A brief story in Britain's Guardian said Labour had been returned with the help of the Greens despite the threat over GM.

Few other British newspapers mentioned the result at all.

In the United States, the Christian Science Monitor quoted analysts who said Helen Clark ran a "weak campaign".

They said that would "push her into negotiations with minority parties such as the environmentalist Greens".

The New York Times said small, conservative parties drew enough votes to frustrate Helen Clark's efforts to win an outright majority. National was "devastated".

Canada's Globe & Mail called Helen Clark's win historic.

South Africa's Mail & Guardian had not mentioned the result by last night, despite running a comprehensive scenesetter last week on "New Zealand's first GM poll".

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