Down to 16,000 votes

At present the Left gets 61 seats and the Centre Right 61.  As an indication of how close it is: If National had gained 15,000 more votes, Labours share would drop enough for it to get only 49 seats also.  The Maori overhang would drop to 1 seat and Nat/UF/NZF would keep 61 vs left 60.  That would be enough to tip the whole electoral balance.  If National were prepared to have every electorate recounted and each vote scrutinised you could easily see that movement.  Whether it would be politically achievable is another story.

Left					60
Right					61
					121
Party	Party	Total	Actual %	Add 16,000 votes to National	Total
	Votes	Seats			Seats
Labour	832,424	50	40.43%	41.24%	49
National	825,674	49	40.10%	40.90%	49
New Zealand First	119,336	7	5.80%	5.91%	7
Green	103,617	6	5.03%	5.13%	6
Mâori	40,488	4	1.97%	2.01%	4
United Future New Zealand	55,605	3	2.70%	2.75%	3
ACT	31,074	2	1.51%	1.54%	2
Jim Anderton's Progressive	24,624	1	1.20%	1.22%	1
Destiny New Zealand	12,488	0	0.61%	0.62%	0
Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis	4,609	0	0.22%	0.23%	0
Christian Heritage NZ	2,495	0	0.12%	0.12%	0
Alliance	1,503	0	0.07%	0.07%	0
Democrats for Social Credit	1,077	0	0.05%	0.05%	0
Libertarianz	1,006	0	0.05%	0.05%	0
New Zealand Family Rights Protection	926	0	0.04%	0.05%	0
Direct Democracy	717	0	0.03%	0.04%	0
99 MP	564	0	0.03%	0.03%	0
The Republic of New Zealand	465	0	0.02%	0.02%	0
OneNZ	449	0	0.02%	0.02%	0
0	2,059,141	122	1	102.01%	121

Comments

[span(ner in the works)]

what a long, crazy night. thank goodness they counted quickly, imagine if it had gone on another few hours, i think i would have fallen asleep and had nightmares about Winston and Peter Dunne sharing the Prime Ministership month about. Specials could still change things dramatically. ARGH!

[sagenz]

instead i will be having nightmares about another 3 years of helengrad. who would need the most counselling?