The Conservative Party won the New Zealand election with stronger support than expected

New Zealand’s conservative National Party won parliamentary elections in the Ocean nation on Saturday, which will allow the Wellington administration to resume rule after six years.

With nearly 80% of the counting completed, the National Party led by Christopher Lacson is leading with 39.98% of the vote, while the centre-left Labor Party led by New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has 26.34%. Votes as per Election Commission.

It is a radical change for the 2020 election, in which former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who resigned last January, became leader of the Labor Party.

“Unfortunately, the results show that it is not enough,” Hipkins announced this Saturday, admitting the election defeat and calling Lacson to congratulate him on his victory.

“From the bottom of my heart, thank you very much,” Hipkins told his co-religionists in a speech reported by Radio New Zealand.

For its part, the Liberal Party ACT, which will form a coalition with the Conservatives in a possible minority government, won 9.18% of the vote, while Labour’s traditional allies, the Green Party and the Maori Party, received 10.53% and 2.52% of the vote. respectively.

The nationalist NZ First party has received 6.35% of the vote so far, while other parties and null and void votes are at 5.06%, according to the first results.

This means the Conservatives will win 51 of the 120 seats in Parliament, so, along with the ACT’s 12, they can form a coalition to govern with a majority rather than resorting to NZ First as originally predicted. Low percentage support for National Party.

More than 3.8 million New Zealanders voted this Saturday at more than 2,300 polling stations across the country between 9:00am and 7:00pm (8:00pm GMT on Friday and 6:00am Saturday), although almost a million have already cast their ballots. had done in advance.

In the campaign, the Conservatives promised to cut taxes and cut public spending to fight inflation in the country, while Labor, battered by six years in power, vowed to fight rising cost of living. Most vulnerable families.

Elections in New Zealand, home to nearly 5.1 million people, have been marked by the impact of strong inflation (6%) on the cost of living, access to housing, crime, the climate crisis and the importance of China in its foreign policy. .