New Zealand's National Party Sweeps Election

With a win of 48 percent of the vote, New Zealand's National Party has stormed to election victory. Prime Minister John Key will begin his third term in office.



Following a campaign surrounded by controversy, New Zealand's National Party has won a sweeping victory in the country's general elections, with its leader John Key set to begin a third term as Prime Minister.



Key's ruling center-right National Party pulled in 48 percent of the electorate's vote, close to double of its closest rival, the center-left Labour Party, which won 25 percent.



In a historic election result, Key will be the first New Zealand Prime Minister able to govern in his own right since proportional voting was introduced in New Zealand in 1996. Typically, parties need at least one coalition partner to form a government.







Campaign controversy



The road to third-time victory for Key, however, had been far from simple with allegations that he had given intelligence agencies the go ahead to carry out mass domestic spying. Key dismissed the allegations.



On Tuesday, the New Zealand Justice Department also confirmed that the Detroit-based publisher representing rapper Eminem had filed a suit against the National Party for copyright infringement. The party was accused of playing music resembing Eminem's hit song "Lose Yourself" from the 2002 movie "8 Mile" during a televised campaign.



Following the National Party's win of 61 of 121 parliamentary seats, howver, Key said he was "ecstatic."



"This is a great night. This is a victory for those who kept the faith," he told cheering crowds in Auckland. "This is a victory for those who refused to be distracted and who knew that a vote for National was a vote for a brighter future for all New Zealanders," said Key before also tweeting his thanks.







Work together



Key was not alone in showing his gratitude, with Labour, who only managed to win 32 parliamentary seats, also tweeting a message of thanks, in what ironically resembled a Labour victory tweet.



In light of his party's worst performance since the 1920s, Labour leader David Cunliffe said, "I'm certainly happy to take my share of blame for this result, but I'm getting consistent feedback from people that they want me to muscle up, to carry on and drive through the change that we need."



"I have called on John Key and I have congratulated him and I have acknowledged that he will continue to be the prime minister of New Zealand at this time, and I am calling on all of you that it its time to put aside political differences and work together for this country," Cunliffe told his party supporters in Auckland.



The Green Party received 10 percent of the vote, a marginal decline from the last elections in 2011, while the New Zealand First party, gained nine percent, slightly more than last election.



Failed coalition



The Internet-Mana Party, funded by online billionaire Kim Dotcom, failed to win a single seat after attracting only 1.26 percent of the vote. To enter parliament, parties need at least five percent of the party vote, or to have at least one of their candidates win an electorate seat.



Despite his party's disastrous result, the tech mogul also tweeted his thanks, to little response from Twitter users.







Born in Germany, Dotcom, who is accused of copyright infringement in the US, was unable to stand for candidacy himself and had instead relied on the popularity of Mana leader Hone Harawira.







The Internet Party and Mana had joined forces in May with the hopes of creating the perfect companionship of wealth and public support. Harawira, however, failed to win his Maori electorate seat in Friday's election - one of seven Maori seats in New Zealand's parliament, allocated to its indigenous population.



ksb/shs (Reuters, AFP, AP)