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Olivia Ireland, Tiffany Turnbull (Wellington)
A general election was held in New Zealand on the 7th, but no party won a majority of seats. With no clear winner, the leaders of the two major parties are preparing to negotiate to form a coalition government.
Preliminary results showed Prime Minister Chris Lacson's centre-right National Party became the largest party with 42 seats, but fell 19 seats short of the majority needed to form a government.
A deal with the National Party's right-wing coalition partners ACT and New Zealand First would protect its narrow lead over the left.
Meanwhile, Chris Hipkins, leader of the opposition Labor Party, which won 36 seats, refused to concede defeat and said the "shape of the next government" would remain uncertain "for some time".
This close election focused on the soaring cost of living and the unemployment rate.
According to forecasts, the National Party is expected to win 42 seats and Labor 36. The Green Party has 16 seats, the ACT Party has 13 seats, New Zealand First has 12 seats, the centrist Opportunity Party has seven seats and Te Pati Māori, which represents Māori interests, has five seats.
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The election commission is expected to announce the official results on November 27th.
Prime Minister Lacson praised Mr Hipkins, saying the opposition "fought very strong" and told party members: "Whatever the final result, we are all very proud of you."
He also said that he would operate an interim government until the final outcome is finalized at the end of this month, adding, ``Once the final outcome is in place, meaningful negotiations will be possible.''
"The people have made a statement," Hipkins said, but added: "It may take some time to understand what the people have said."
He added that the results make clear that "the next Congress will require all of us to compromise, work together and find common ground."
With over 99% of votes counted, the National Party and Labor Party are now almost evenly matched in terms of vote share.
However, provisional results show that support for the two major parties remained at historically low levels, with the two parties receiving a combined vote share of approximately 60%.
They were followed by the Greens, ACT, New Zealand First, Opportunity and Pati Māori.
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This is the first time the Opportunity Party has surpassed the 5% vote share needed to win a seat. The party's leader Kyurei Wong said it would cooperate with both camps. The party has been described as the kingmaker in this election due to its willingness to work with both major parties, but its leaders have said they will first negotiate with the party that wins the most seats.
Speaking at the Opportunity Party's vote-counting party, Mr Wong told supporters that he believes we can "change the way politics works and focus on the future, the next generation and finding common ground."
"The Opportunity Party could act as a wildcard player and determine which coalition of parties holds government," said Andrew Geddes, a professor at the University of Otago who is an expert on New Zealand electoral law.
"Winners and losers will be decided by very small margins of votes, not only between political parties, but also in individual constituencies. We will have to wait for the special votes to be processed and counted over the next three weeks," he said. Special votes are votes cast by voters outside their constituency, including votes from overseas.
The Green Party, which is proposing to force the country's two biggest supermarkets to sell their stores and create publicly owned stores, saw their vote share increase by several percentage points.
Julian MacLean, head of polling at Australian research firm Roy Morgan, told BBC News that the cost of living was the biggest concern for many New Zealanders. "Mr Lacson came into office three years ago saying he was going to improve the lives of New Zealanders and solve these economic problems, but nothing has actually happened," he said.
More than half of New Zealanders no longer think of New Zealand as a "land of opportunity", according to the annual Social Cohesion Survey. New Zealanders are moving abroad in record numbers, many heading to Australia.
Under New Zealand's single-seat district proportional representation system, most governments are coalition governments. Voters choose their constituency's representatives and also vote for political parties.
(English article: No clear winner after tight New Zealand general election)
