Clark beats opposition by single seat in New Zealand election

Prime Minister Helen Clark’s Labour Party beat the opposition National Party by a single seat in New Zealand’s cliff-hanger election today, but neither party won a clear majority in Parliament.

Clark appeared likely to hang on to power, despite a surge in support for the opposition National Party, which pledged to strip special rights from indigenous Maori and said it could dismantle the country’s 20-year-old nuclear-free laws.

With 99% of the votes tabulated, the chief electoral office said Clark’s Labour Party had 41%, while opposition leader Don Brash’s National Party had 40%.

The electoral office forecast that Labour would finish with 50 seats and National 49.

The new parliament is expected to have 122 MPs.

But Brash refused to concede defeat and said that in coming days and weeks he would “endeavour to put together a National-led government”.