New Zealand’s PM John Key wins third term in office

New Zealand’s ruling National party have secured a third term in government on Saturday as the center-right party secured an outright majority on a platform to continue strong economic growth. Prime Minister John Key’s party received 48.1 percent of the vote, translating into 62 of 121 parliamentary seats and improving its performance from the previous vote in 2011. The leader of the opposition Labour Party, David Cunliffe, conceded defeat, with the center-left party winning 24.6 percent of the vote.

[Voters are more interested in] stable leadership and a growing economy. There’s been all these distractions and different issues going on but the polling hasn’t really moved.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key

Supporters say Key and his colleagues have managed the economy well during six years in office. The economy this year has been growing at a 4 percent clip, while unemployment has dropped to 5.6 percent. But the campaign was overshadowed by allegations of dirty political tactics involving government ministers, and claims that a government spy agency planned mass secret domestic surveillance last year, although the fallout had little impact on Key’s ratings. New Zealand’s complicated proportional voting system is notoriously hard to predict and has not delivered a majority government since it was introduced in 1996.

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