WELLINGTON (Reuters) – Final results from New Zealand’s Oct. 14 general election will be released on Friday, opening the way for right-wing parties to start negotiating coalition agreements in earnest.
The centre-right National Party and its preferred coalition partner, the libertarian ACT New Zealand party, achieved a narrow victory in the election, securing a combined 61 seats out of the 121-seat parliament.
While National and ACT have enough seats to form a government based on these results, this count does not include approximately 567,000 special votes, which make up around 20% of the total votes cast.
Special votes, which are cast by New Zealanders living or traveling abroad, voters outside their constituency, or newly enrolled individuals, have historically led to conservative parties losing at least one seat in the parliament.
If this trend continues, National will need to negotiate with New Zealand First to form a majority government.
The Electoral Commission will announce the final count at 2 p.m. (0100 GMT) on Friday.
Since October 14, National has been holding discussions with both ACT and NZ First, but political commentator Bryce Edwards stated that they would wait for the final results before entering into the conclusive negotiations.
“Clearly, they are waiting to some extent until they have those final results, as they will have a significant impact on the composition of the government,” Edwards said, adding that the negotiations could take several days or even weeks.
National leader Christopher Luxon, who will lead the incoming government, mentioned on Thursday that he is uncertain about the timeline for concluding the negotiations and indicated that it is unlikely to have a government formed in time for the Pacific Island Forum next week.
“We are prepared and eager to resolve this as quickly as possible so that we can start the work,” Luxon stated.
According to the law, New Zealand’s Parliament must convene within six weeks of the official election result, but there is no specific deadline for forming a government.
(Reporting by Lucy Craymer; editing by Robert Birsel)
