27 Nov 2011

National, United Future and ACT to form next government

8:07 am on 27 November 2011

The National Party will form the next government with the ACT and United Future parties.

National won 48% of the party vote in Saturday's election - and while it is an emphatic win, the party does not have enough seats to govern alone.

National will have 60 seats in the new Parliament and will turn to ACT and United Future who have one seat each to form a government.

ACT's John Banks won Epsom, while United Future leader Peter Dunne won Ohariu, but neither has enough of the party vote to bring more than one MP into Parliament.

National leader John Key says he will also talk to the Maori Party, which will have three MPs.

Labour's share of the vote dropped to 27%.

In the last Parliament, it had 43 MPs and this time has 34.

Labour's loss was a gain for the smaller parties.

The Green Party had their best-ever result, winning just over 10% of the vote, giving them 13 MPs.

Winston Peters returns to Parliament and will bring 7 other list MPs with him after New Zealand First won 6.8% of the party vote.

The Mana Party has one MP, with leader Hone Harawira holding his seat of Te Tai Tokerau.

In its first election, the Conservative Party won 2.7% of the party vote, falling short of the 5% threshold needed to enter Parliament without an electorate seat.