The 1999 New Zealand general election was held on 27 November 1999 to determine the composition of the

46th New Zealand Parliament The 46th New Zealand Parliament was a term of the New Zealand Parliament. Its composition was determined by the 1999 election, and it sat until the 2002 election. The 46th Parliament marked a change of government, with a coalition of the Lab ...

. The governing National Party, led by

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Jenny Shipley, was defeated, being replaced by a coalition of

Helen Clark Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008 and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was ...

's Labour Party and the smaller

Alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or sovereign state, states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an a ...

. 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.

Background

Before the election, the National Party had an unstable hold on power. After the 1996 election National had formed a coalition with the populist

New Zealand First New Zealand First (), commonly abbreviated to NZ First or NZF, is a political party in New Zealand, founded and led by Winston Peters, who has served three times as Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand, deputy prime minister. The party has form ...

party and its controversial leader,

Winston Peters Winston Raymond Peters (born 11 April 1945) is a New Zealand politician. He has led the political party New Zealand First since he founded it in 1993, and since November 2023 has served as the 25th Minister of Foreign Affairs (New Zealand), ...

. The coalition was unpopular, as New Zealand First was seen as opposed to the National government, and had made many statements in the 1996 election campaign to that effect, such as saying that only through New Zealand First could National Party be toppled, and Peters said that he would not accept

Jim Bolger James Brendan Bolger ( ; born 31 May 1935) is a New Zealand retired politician of the National Party who was the 35th prime minister of New Zealand, serving from 1990 to 1997. Bolger was born in Ōpunake, Taranaki, to Irish immigrants. Bef ...

as prime minister, Bill Birch as Finance Minister or Jenny Shipley in a social welfare portfolio. NZ First's support crashed, though this was also partly caused by scandals and by mid-1997, NZ First was polling at as low as 2%. National also polled badly, and

was replaced as prime minister with Jenny Shipley. Gradually, however, the relationship between the two parties deteriorated, and Peters took his party out of the coalition, after Shipley sacked him from her cabinet. A number of New Zealand First MPs deserted Peters, establishing themselves as independents or as members of newly established parties. By forming agreements with these MPs, National was able to keep itself in office, but its control was often unsteady. The polls were still initially close, but without NZ First support, National's chances of forming a government were slim. Eventually, Labour Party gained a solid lead over National. The Labour Party, which had been in Opposition since losing the 1990 election, presented a strong challenge, particularly due to its agreement with the smaller Alliance party. The two had not previously enjoyed good relations, primarily due to the presence of the NewLabour Party as one of the Alliance's key members. NewLabour had been established by

Jim Anderton James Patrick Anderton (born Byrne; 21 January 1938 – 7 January 2018) was a New Zealand politician who led a succession of Left-wing politics, left-wing parties after leaving the New Zealand Labour Party, Labour Party in 1989. Anderton's pol ...

, a former Labour MP who quit the party in protest over the economic reforms of Roger Douglas, which were often blamed for Labour's election loss in 1990. Gradually, as the Labour Party withdrew from Rogernomics, the Alliance (led by Anderton) reduced its hostility towards Labour, but it was not until shortly before the 1999 election that a formal understanding was reached regarding a possible left-wing coalition. This agreement was deemed a necessary step towards building a credible alternative to the National Party. This election was the first one in New Zealand's history where both main parties were led by women, being repeated again in the 2020 election.

MPs retiring in 1999

Fifteen MPs intended to retire at the end of the 45th Parliament.

The election

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.

Opinion polling

Summary of results

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 A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

, 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.

openly encouraged Labour supporters in the Coromandel to give their constituency vote to Green Party co-leader

Jeanette Fitzsimons Jeanette Mary Fitzsimons (née Gaston; 17 January 1945 – 5 March 2020) was a New Zealand politician and environmentalist. She was the co-leader of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand from 1995 to 2009, and was a Member of Parliament from ...

and their party vote to Labour. 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 ACT New Zealand (; ), also known as the ACT Party or simply ACT, is a Right-wing politics, right-wing, Classical liberalism, classical liberal, Right-libertarianism, right-libertarian, and Conservatism, conservative List of political parties i ...

, 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 Tauranga (, Māori language for "resting place," or "safe anchorage") is a coastal city in the Bay of Plenty Region and the List of cities in New Zealand, fifth-most populous city of New Zealand, with an urban population of or roughly 3% of t ...

, something he did by only 63 votes. None of the MPs who deserted New Zealand First were returned to parliament.

Detailed results

Parliamentary parties

, colspan=12 align=center, 1999 New Zealand general election - composition chart

, - style="text-align:center;" ! colspan=2 rowspan=2 style="width:213px;" , Party ! Colspan=3 , Party vote ! Colspan=3 , Electorate vote ! Colspan=4 , Seats , - style="text-align:center;" ! Votes ! % ! Change
( pp) ! Votes ! % ! Change
( pp) ! List ! Electorate ! Total ! +/- , - , , 800,199 , 38.74 , 10.55 , 854,736 , 41.75 , 10.67 , 8 , 41 , 49 , 12 , - , , 629,932 , 30.50 , 3.37 , 641,361 , 31.32 , 1.99 , 17 , 22 , 39 , 5 , - , , 159,859 , 7.74 , 2.36 , 141,322 , 6.90 , 4.35 , 9 , 1 , 10 , 3 , - , , 145,493 , 7.04 , 0.94 , 92,445 , 4.52 , 0.77 , 9 , 0 , 9 , 1 , - , , 106,560 , 5.16 , ''new'' , 86,157 , 4.21 , ''new'' , 6 , 1 , 7 , ''new'' , - , , 87,926 , 4.26 , 9.09 , 85,737 , 4.19 , 9.30 , 4 , 1 , 5 , 12 , - , , 11,065 , 0.54 , 0.34 , 22,467 , 1.10 , 0.97 , 0 , 1 , 1 , , - , , 49,154 , 2.38 , 1.95 , 44,885 , 2.19 , 0.19 , 0 , 0 , 0 , , - , , 23,033 , 1.12 , ''new'' , 19,289 , 0.94 , ''new'' , 0 , 0 , 0 , ''new'' , - , , 22,687 , 1.10 , 0.56 , 6,519 , 0.32 , 0.15 , 0 , 0 , 0 , , - , , 5,949 , 0.29 , 0.26 , — , — , 0.03 , 0 , 0 , 0 , , - , , 5,190 , 0.25 , 0.05 , 3,925 , 0.19 , 0.04 , 0 , 0 , 0 , , - , , 4,008 , 0.19 , ''new'' , 9,321 , 0.46 , ''new'' , 0 , 0 , 0 , ''new'' , - , , 3,244 , 0.17 , 0.01 , — , — , — , 0 , 0 , 0 , , - , , 3,191 , 0.15 , 0.14 , 3,633 , 0.18 , 0.32 , 0 , 0 , 0 , , - , , 2,912 , 0.14 , ''new'' , 2,408 , 0.12 , ''new'' , 0 , 0 , 0 , ''new'' , - , , 1,712 , 0.08 , 0.07 , 2,101 , 0.10 , 0.16 , 0 , 0 , 0 , , - , , 1,311 , 0.06 , ''new'' , 267 , 0.01 , ''new'' , 0 , 0 , 0 , ''new'' , - , , 936 , 0.05 , ''new'' , 688 , 0.03 , ''new'' , 0 , 0 , 0 , ''new'' , - , style="background-color:#EEE" , , style="text-align:left;" , Freedom Movement , 454 , 0.02 , ''new'' , 762 , 0.04 , ''new'' , 0 , 0 , 0 , ''new'' , - , style="background-color:#639" , , style="text-align:left;" , People's Choice , 387 , 0.02 , ''new'' , 154 , 0.01 , ''new'' , 0 , 0 , 0 , ''new'' , - , , 292 , 0.01 , 0.01 , 231 , 0.01 , , 0 , 0 , 0 , , - , style="background-color:#ffffff" , , style="text-align:left;" , Unregistered parties , — , — , — , 2,354 , 0.11 , 0.04 , 0 , 0 , 0 , , - , , — , — , — , 23,004 , 1.12 , 0.08 , 0 , 0 , 0 , , - ! colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Valid votes ! 2,065,494 ! 97.10 ! 0.04 ! 2,047,473 ! 96.25 ! 0.31 ! Colspan=4 , , - , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Informal votes , 19,887 , 0.93 , 0.55 , 37,908 , 1.78 , 0.90 , Colspan=4 , , - , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Disallowed votes , 41,884 , 1.97 , 0.59 , 41,884 , 1.97 , 0.59 , Colspan=4 , , - ! colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Total ! 2,127,265 ! 100 ! ! 2,127,265 ! 100 ! ! 53 ! 67 ! 120 ! , - , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Eligible voters and Turnout , 2,509,365 , 84.77 , 3.51 , 2,509,365 , 84.77 , 3.51 , Colspan=4 , In addition to the registered parties listed above, some groups participated in the election without submitting party lists. Many of these were unregistered parties, lacking the necessary membership numbers for submitting a party list. There were, however, three registered ones that did not, for whatever reason, submit a party list. In total, 14 parties nominated electorate candidates only. By number of votes received, the most significant parties to do this were

Te Tawharau Te Tawharau (roughly translated as "the shelter") was a Māori political party in New Zealand. Te Tawharau briefly had representation in Parliament when Tuariki Delamere, a former New Zealand First MP, transferred his loyalty to it. In the 1 ...

(registered), Mana Wahine Te Ira Tangata (registered), the Equal Rights Party (unregistered), the

Piri Wiri Tua Movement Piri Wiri Tua Movement was a Māori political party in New Zealand associated with the Rātana movement. It was formed in 1999 with the aim of establishing a separate Māori assembly that would work in a partnership alongside Parliament to admin ...

(unregistered), and the Asia Pacific United Party (registered). None of these parties were successful. There were also 36 independent candidates, also unsuccessful. The Mauri Pacific Party, established by a group of defectors from New Zealand First, failed to place even second in the electorates they held. Te Tawharau, which held a seat in parliament thanks to another New Zealand First defector, failed to retain its seat.

Votes summary

Electorate results

Of the 67 electorates in the 1999 election, a majority (41) were won by the opposition Labour Party. Included in Labour's total are the Maori seats, which it managed to regain after losing them to New Zealand First in the previous election. The governing National Party won 22 electorate seats, slightly less than a third of the total. Four minor parties managed to win electorate seats. This proved important for some – neither New Zealand First nor United would have entered parliament if not for

and

Peter Dunne Peter Francis Dunne (born 17 March 1954) is a New Zealand retired politician. Dunne was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Ōhāriu electorate and its predecessors from 1984 to 2017, first as a member of the Labour Party from 1984 to 1 ...

retaining their seats.

also retained his seat. The Greens won their first electorate seat when

took Coromandel, although since the Greens crossed the 5% threshold, this was of less importance than originally thought. The Greens were not to repeat an electorate win until the 2020 election, with Chloë Swarbrick's plurality in Auckland Central. The table below shows the results of the 1999 general election: Key , - , colspan=10 style="background-color:#FFDEAD" , General electorates , - , - , colspan=10 style="background-color:#FFDEAD" ,

Māori electorates In Politics of New Zealand, New Zealand politics, Māori electorates, colloquially known as the Māori seats (), are a special category of New Zealand electorates, electorate that give Reserved political positions, reserved positions to repre ...

, - , -

List results

MPs returned via party lists, and unsuccessful candidates, were as follows: ;Notes: # These party list members later entered parliament in the term as other list MPs elected resigned from parliament. # These party list members later resigned during the parliamentary term.

Summary of seat changes

* Electoral redistributions: ** A minor reconfiguration of electorates and their boundaries occurred between the 1996 and 1999 elections. Six seats were abolished and eight were created, giving a net gain of two electorates. ** The seats of ''Mahia'', ''New Lynn'', ''Owairaka'', ''Waipareira'', ''Te Tai Rawhiti (Maori)'' and ''Te Puku O Te Whenua (Maori)'' ceased to exist. ** The seats of ''East Coast'', ''Mt Albert'', ''Mt Roskill'', ''Te Atatu'', ''Titirangi'', ''Hauraki (Maori)'', ''Ikaroa-Rawhiti (Maori)'' and ''Waiariki (Maori)'' came into being. * Seats captured: ** By Labour: ''Banks Peninsula'', ''Hamilton West'', ''Maungakiekie'', ''Northcote'', ''Rotorua'' and ''Wairarapa'' were captured from National. ''Te Tai Hauauru'' and ''Te Tai Tokerau'' were captured from Mauri Pacific. ''Wellington Central'' was captured from ACT. ''Te Tai Tonga'' was captured from New Zealand First. ** By the Greens: ''Coromandel'' was captured from National. * Seats transferred from departing MPs to new MPs: ** ''Epsom'', ''Kaikoura'', ''Karapiro'', ''Port Waikato'', ''Rangitikei'', ''Waitakere'' and ''Whangarei'', all held by departing National MPs, were won by new National candidates. Two of the departing MPs remained in Parliament as list MPs, and another won a different electorate seat. ** The seats of ''Mana'', ''Dunedin South'' and ''Waimakariri'', all held by departing Labour MPs, were won by new Labour candidates. One of the departing MPs remained in Parliament as a list MP. * Labour list seats: Lost 3 (was 11, fell to 8) ** Became electorate MPs: 7 ** Re-elected: 5 ** Newly elected: 3 (including a former electorate MP) * National list seats: Gained 3 (was 14, rose to 17) ** Retired: 4 ** Re-elected: 6 ** Not re-elected: 3 ** Newly elected: 11 (including 9 former electorate MPs) * Alliance list seats: Lost 2 (was 11, fell to 9) ** Re-elected: 9 ** (Became Green MPs: 2) * ACT list seats: Gained 2 (was 7, rose to 9) ** Retired: 2 ** Re-elected: 5 ** Newly elected: 4 (including a former electorate MP) * Green list seats: Gained 6 (was 0, rose to 6) ** (Former Alliance list MPs: 2) ** Became electorate MP: 1 ** Re-elected: 1 ** Newly elected: 5 * New Zealand First list seats: Lost 3 (was 7, fell to 4) ** Re-elected: 4 ** Not re-elected: 3 * Christian Heritage list seats: Lost 1 (was 1, fell to 0) ** Not re-elected: 1 * Mauri Pacific list seats: Lost 2 (was 2, fell to 0) ** Not re-elected: 2 * Mana Wahine list seats: Lost 1 (was 1, fell to 0) ** Not re-elected: 1

Post-election events

The result in the

electorate was an extremely close three way race. New Zealand First leader

beat National candidate Katherine O'Regan in a close race with Labour's

Margaret Wilson Margaret Anne Wilson (born 20 May 1947) is a New Zealand lawyer, academic and former Labour Party politician. She served as Attorney-General from 1999 to 2005 and Speaker of the House of Representatives from 2005 to 2008, during the Fifth ...

in third. Labour sought a judicial recount; since New Zealand First won less than five percent of the party vote they would have been ejected from Parliament if Peters lost his electorate (allowing Labour to govern solely with the Alliance and not needing the Greens). Peters criticised the recount as a waste of money. The recount resulted in Peters' majority increasing by one vote from 62 to 63. A

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

to the

Wellington City Council Wellington City Council is a Territorial authorities of New Zealand, territorial authority in New Zealand, governing the city of Wellington, the country's capital city and List of cities in New Zealand#City councils, third-largest city by popul ...

was caused after Eastern Ward councillor Sue Kedgley resigned her seat after she was elected a

List MP A list MP is a member of parliament (MP) elected from a party list rather than a geographic electoral district. The place in Parliament is due to the number of votes the party won, not to votes received by the MP personally. This occurs only in ...

for the Green Party, necessitating a by-election to fill the council vacancy. The by-election was won by Ray Ahipene-Mercer.

Notes

References

External links

Chief Electoral Office report

New Zealand Election Survey results for 1999
{{New Zealand elections November 1999 in Oceania