Polls Closed in The New Zealand 2005 General Election

The New Zealand General Election Preliminary Election Results: Other Wikinews election coverage:

Date announced for by-election to replace former New Zealand PM Clark

Polls Closed in The New Zealand 2005 General Election

Results to be announced in the New Zealand 2005 General Election

NZ opposition leader admits to fundamentalist contacts Background: Wikipedia, Wikinews' sibling project, has in-depth background articles on:

Political parties in New Zealand

New Zealand House of Representatives

Politics of New Zealand

Mixed Member Proportional voting system

Previous New Zealand General Elections

At 07:00 UTC today (19:00 NZST, local time), the polls closed in the New Zealand general election, 2005.

Nearly three million people were eligible to vote.

Turn out was strong, turnout results are predicted to be to be higher than the 2002 turn out (77%)

Under New Zealand's MMP system, parties must win either a electorate seat or 5% of the party vote to win a seat in the 120-seat, parliament.

Preliminary election results will be on Wikinews as they come through it is expected that all votes will be counted by 11:30 UTC (23:30 NZST)

The official results are expected to be available by Saturday, 1 October 2005, on the Chief Electoral Office 2005 General Election Results website