National Drops 2 Seats, Greens/Labour Pick Up 2

National has lost two seats and the Labour and Green parties picked up one each in the final New Zealand election results. National will now have 56 seats compared with 58 on election night, Labour goes up to 46 seats and the Green Party will have 8 MPs. This means National, with support from ACT and New Zealand First would have 66 seats. Labour, the Greens and New Zealand First would now have 63 seats, compared with the 61 they had under the provisional results. To form a majority in Parliament, 61 seats are needed. There were no changes to the number of seats held by New Zealand First and ACT, at nine and one respectively.

All electorate candidates leading on election night have been confirmed as winning their seats. Special votes totalled 446,287 or 17 per cent of the total number of votes. That includes 61,524 overseas votes.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said he would not begin coalition talks in earnest until these results were announced. Yesterday afternoon, Green Party leader James Shaw said the result extended the majority of those who voted for change and increased the case for a change of government Golriz Ghahraman, a human rights lawyer, becomes the Green Party’s 8th list MP.

For Labour, Angie WarrenClark will take a list seat in Parliament. National’s Nicola Willis and Maureen Pugh will not now become MPs.

Chief Electoral Officer Alicia Wright said 47 per cent of votes were cast before election day, compared with just under 30 percent in 2014 and 14 per cent in 2011. Before the special votes were factored in, National had 46 per cent of the ballots and 58 seats, Labour had 35.8 per cent and 45 seats, New Zealand First had 7.5 per cent and nine seats, the Greens had 5.9 per cent and seven seats and ACT had 0.5 per cent and one seat.

Special votes include votes that were cast overseas, votes by people who were not on the printed public roll and those who were not enrolled at the start of the election process.