1999 New Zealand general election
The 1999 New Zealand general election was held on 27 November 1999 to determine the composition of the 46th New Zealand Parliament. The governing National Party, led by Prime Minister Jenny Shipley, was defeated, being replaced by a coalition of Helen Clark's Labour Party and the smaller Alliance. This marked an end to nine years of the Fourth National Government, and the beginning of the Fifth Labour Government which would govern for nine years in turn, until its loss to the National Party in the 2008 general election. It was the first New Zealand election where both major parties had female leaders.
All 120 seats in the House of Representatives
61 seats needed for a majority
2,127,295 (84.77%) 
3.51%
The election[edit]
The election took place on 27 November. Less than 84.1% of the 2,509,365 people registered to vote turned out for the election. This was the lowest turnout for some time, although it would drop further in the 2002 election. A total of 679 candidates stood for electorate seats, representing 36 parties. Party lists comprised 760 candidates from 22 parties. The new government was sworn in on 10 December.
In the election 965 candidates stood, and there were 22 registered parties with party lists. Of the candidates, 482 were electorate and list, 197 were electorate only, and 286 were list only. 67% of candidates (647) were male and 33% (318) female.[1][2]
Summary of results[edit]
Labour Party won 49 seats in parliament. When combined with the ten seats won by the Alliance, the coalition was two seats short of an absolute majority. It was able to form a new government with support from the Green Party, which entered parliament for the first time as an independent party (having previously been a part of the Alliance). The Green Party's entry to parliament was by a narrow margin, however – in order to gain seats, it needed to either win 5% of the party vote or win an electorate seat, neither of which the party appeared likely to do. Helen Clark openly encouraged Labour supporters in the Coromandel to give their constituency vote to Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons[3] and their party vote to Labour.[4] However, when all special votes (that is, votes cast by people who were not able to attend a polling place in their electorate on the day of the election) were counted, the Greens had narrowly reached not one but both targets – Jeanette Fitzsimons won the electorate of Coromandel by 250 votes, and the party gained 5.16% of the vote.
The National Party, while not performing exceptionally poorly, failed to gain enough support to keep it in power. It won 39 seats, ten fewer than the Labour Party. ACT New Zealand, a potential coalition partner for National, gained nine seats. While this was an increase on ACT's previous election results, it was not sufficient to enable the National Party to form a government. National's former coalition partner, New Zealand First, performed poorly, with voters punishing it for the problems in the last government. The party received less than 5% of the vote, and so would have been removed from parliament had Winston Peters not retained his electorate of Tauranga, something he did by only 63 votes. None of the MPs who deserted New Zealand First were returned to parliament.
Post-election events[edit]
The result in the Tauranga electorate was an extremely close three way race. New Zealand First leader Winston Peters beat National candidate Katherine O'Regan in a close race with Labour's Margaret Wilson in third. Labour sought a judicial recount as since New Zealand First won less than five percent of the party vote they would have no seats in parliament in at all if Peters lost the electorate (allowing Labour to govern solely with the Alliance and not needing the Greens). Peters criticised the recount as a waste of money.[10] The recount resulted in Peters' majority increasing by one vote from 62 to 63.[11]
A by-election to the Wellington City Council was caused after Eastern Ward councillor Sue Kedgley resigned her seat after she was elected a List MP for the Green Party, necessitating a by-election to fill the council vacancy. The by-election was won by Ray Ahipene-Mercer.[12]