Election 2011: Epsom race close - Election 2011 - NZ Herald News

Over half the vote has now been counted in the 2011 general election.

With 64.3 per cent of polling places counted, National led with 49.23 per cent, Labour had 26.96 per cent, the Greens had 10.46 per cent, and New Zealand First remained above the 5 per cent threshold, with 6.82 per cent.

The Maori Party was on 1.28 per cent, United Future was on 0.67 per cent, the Conservative Party on 2.79 per cent, Act on 1.11 per cent and Mana on 0.93 per cent.

So I'd better present the other players.

The "New Zealand First Party" is a party of the extreme centre. Populist muckraker Winston Peters has been in coalition with both Labour and National, was finally chucked out in 2008, and has risen from the dead. He channels the angry and bewildered, the people who used to vote Social Credit.

The ACT party was founded by the neo-liberal faction of Labour, mentioned above, and represents the hard right of NZ politics. In the last couple of elections, they have been kept alive by the electorate seat that National has conceded them : National ran a candidate with instructions to lose, but this time ACT are so unpopular that the rebellious right-wing electors may well return the National candidate anyway. ACT provides National with a reliable coalition partner, and a safety valve for disaffected voters who might otherwise switch to the centre or the left. I was hoping they would be consigned to the dustbin of history this time, but we'll see...

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}