BY MICHAEL TUCKER

AUCKLAND, New Zealand - Elections in New Zealand October 12 failed to produce a clear majority for any single party to become the government.

Election night results saw the ruling National Party take 34 percent of votes, giving it 44 seats in the new 120-seat parliament. The opposition Labour Party won 28 percent of votes, for 37 seats.

New Zealand First, led by rightist politician Winston Peters, won 17 seats. Newspaper articles proclaimed Peters as "kingmaker," speculating that a government would be formed from a coalition of New Zealand First with either Labour or National. The Alliance, a coalition of five parties, took 13 seats. The right-wing party Act, which supports National, won eight seats, and United, previously in coalition with National, gained one. The right-wing Christian Coalition achieved 4.4 percent of the vote, just short of the 5 percent threshold needed to be allocated seats in parliament.

Prime Minister James Bolger told an election night audience, "We will manage things calmly and rationally in the days ahead." Bolger's National Party remains in office as a "caretaker" government.

Winston Peters called for "cool hands, cool heads, and wise leadership."

New Zealand First leaders began formal negotiations with National on October 21, followed two days later by talks with Labour. Peters described the talks as a "bidding war" for the support of New Zealand First. Negotiations will determine whether a coalition is cobbled together, or alternatively, if Labour or National can gain enough support to rule as a minority government. Parliament is required to reconvene by December 13. An estimated 88 percent of registered voters cast a ballot. Registration is required by law.

The Labour Party, which had been languishing in the polls for much of the year, saw a big jump in electoral support in the final weeks of the campaign, as political commentators and other molders of public opinion sought to boost the party's image ahead of New Zealand First and the Alliance as the alternative government to National. This continued even after the election, with Labour being presented as the victor and its leader, Helen Clark, as the prime minister in waiting.

In reality, Labour gained its lowest share of the vote since 1928. If the election had been held under the previous electoral system, the National Party would have gained a comfortable majority on election night. These elections were held using a form of proportional representation for the first time.

The drop in support for Labour was sharpest in the five Maori seats, estimated at 80 percent. All five seats were won by New Zealand First. Both Winston Peters and his party's deputy leader, Tau Henare, are Maori. Labour has held the Maori seats for more than five decades. Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand, can register to vote either in a general electorate or in one of the separate Maori electorates.

Despite predictions by political and business commentators that the prospect of a change of government, or of an unstable coalition, would undermine business confidence and spur a withdrawal of foreign investment, the sharemarket index and overseas buying of shares and government stock continued to rise before the election and after. One week after election day, the New Zealand dollar hit an eight-year high.

Newspaper editors and other capitalist spokespeople had stressed that, provided the outcome was a government centered on National or Labour, little change in government policy was likely. "Either moderate National or moderate Labour are likely to be the lodestones of government," wrote the editors of the Christchurch daily, The Press, the day before the poll, "and that promises few alarming excursions away from sensible administration."

In neighboring Australia editorial writers voiced a sharper concern at the election outcome. "Indeed, there have to be doubts about the stability of any government that has an anti- immigration, anti-foreign investment populist like Mr. Peters as a major player," declared the Australian, while the Sydney Morning Herald warned of "an Italian style of politics with shifting coalitions and a turnover of prime ministers."

Michael Tucker is a member of the United Food, Beverage & General Workers Union in Auckland.  
 
 
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