[Redmen4ever]

National is the clear winner of the election, but appears to fall just short of an outright majority. National plus ACT (1 seat) plus New Zealand First (9 seats) could form a robust majority coalition.

[guitar Josh]

Good news for New Zealand. John Key and Bill English have done a great job leading NZ since taking over from Labor.

[Redmen4ever]

I’m watching live coverage by the New Zealand Herald, a left of center media outlet. I haven’t seen any of them crying, but they have fallen into “What Happened” post-election analysis, trying to explain why their side lost, and not spending any attention on why National won.

[montag813]

I wish we had New Zealand’s immigration restrictions

[Revolutionary]

NZ First is going to keep everyone in suspense about who they will form a government with. Probably the conservatives (National) since they have the biggest share of the vote. But National misses an outright majority by one or two. NZs would likely be pissed if NZ First went with Labor.

[Redmen4ever]

With 99 percent of the vote:

National 46.0% (58 seats), Labour 35.8 (45), NZ First 7.5 (9), Greens 5.8 (7) and ACT (1). These results might change a bit when mail ballots (’specials’) are received.

Labour picked up 13 seats; 7 from Greens and 2 each from NZ First and Maori (which is out of parliament, and 1 each from National and United Future (which is also out of government).

NZ First will play the role of kingmaker. In the past, NZ First has backed the largest party so that it would be able to form a stable government. Plus, they have more in common with National than with Labour.