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Opposition ahead as voting ends in NZ election
Sat Nov 8, 2008 2:17am EST
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By Gyles Beckford
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Early returns from New Zealand's general election on Saturday suggested the center-right National Party, backed by smaller parties, would oust Prime Minister Helen Clark's nine-year-old Labor government.
A high turnout was predicted, with queues reported in many cities and some booths running out of voting papers as fine weather brought out voters, while advance and absentee votes were up nearly a third on the 2005 election.
Early returns showed National with around 49 percent of the nationwide vote against Labor's 31 percent and the Greens on 6 percent.
The President of the Labor Party, Mike Williams, said the party had made every effort to get supporters to the polls.
"There seems to have been a very large turnout in our heartland seats ... certainly we had an awful lot of people on the ground despite the depressing polls, so watch this space," he told Radio New Zealand.
Opinion polls published in the last day of the campaign put Clark's center-left Labor between 11 and 17 percentage points behind the National Party.
Large urban constituencies, which have previously favored Labor, would not report for several hours. The final result was expected by 11:30 p.m. (10:30 a.m. British time).
Whoever wins, few major policy shifts are expected. Both the main parties have promised tax cuts and extra spending to help cushion an economy already in recession and expected to suffer further fallout from the global credit crisis.
PROPORTIONAL SYSTEM
National is unlikely to gain an outright majority, but if voting follows the polls it could be able to form a government with the right wing ACT Party and the centrist United Future, who have both pledged to support National.
Since New Zealand instituted a proportional voting system in 1996, neither Labor of National has secured an outright majority, relying on the support of minor parties.
Under New Zealand's mixed member proportional system, parties must secure either a local electorate seat, or 5 percent of the nationwide vote, to enter the 120-seat parliament.
If National and its allies fall short the Maori Party could come into play. The party, which represents New Zealand's indigenous Maori people who make up 15 percent of the population, has said it could work with either Labor or National.
Labor's path to forming a government is seen as much tougher, relying on the Green Party, the center-left Progressives, the Maori Party and the centrist NZ First, although polls suggested the latter may struggle to return to Parliament.
The latest polls projected National, United Future and ACT to win 62 to 64 seats, compared with 54 for Labor, the Greens and the Progressives. Continued...
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