KEY POINTS:
It's literally "over and out" for Labour's longest-serving leader, as Helen Clark steps down from the helm of a party which had been besieged by years of civil warfare when she took over in 1993.
Gracious in defeat on Saturday night, she shocked supporters with the swiftness of her decision to quit the bridge of a political ship that had never been more tightly run since Norman Kirk died in office in 1975.
Having spent nine years at the top of a career she had single-mindedly chosen for herself at the expense of other pursuits, including raising children, she has no appetite to be Opposition leader and risking any resemblance of the coup in which she seized power from Mike Moore out of the ashes of Rogernomics.
"She did it cleanly and decisively and has given them [Labour] the opportunity to not only rebuild their caucus but to put a new front person there," political scientist and former National candidate Barry Gustafson said yesterday.
Dr Gustafson, who lectured Helen Clark at Auckland University before she joined him as an academic colleague while he was a senior Labour Party member himself, said he initially thought his former student babysitter would stay in the game.
"Because she is so formidable at the height of her powers, I thought she might refresh herself and perhaps lead the Opposition and come back for a fourth term in three years."
But she has clearly decided to avoid any chance of rot setting in around her, and jeopardising the unity she has forged in her caucus since dousing the hostilities which bedevilled Labour from the post-1984 Rogernomics era until her victory against pro-Moore rearguard forces in 1996.
Saying Labour would have a new leader by Christmas, she vowed to give that person "whoever it is, the total loyalty and support that I have enjoyed from every single Labour Member of Parliament for a very long time".
"So, with that, it's over and out from me - and thank you, New Zealand, for the privilege of having been your Prime Minister for the past nine years."
Helen Clark, 58, became MP for Mt Albert in 1981, and, although on Labour's left wing, kept out of the fray during party battles over Rogernomics. She was appointed a Cabinet minister in 1987 and quickly forged a reputation as a formidable political manager.
After deposing Mike Moore as Opposition leader in 1993, she had difficulty dragging Labour out of the doldrums in her first term, and nearly lost her job when her popularity rating was just 2 per cent and Labour's support was just 14 per cent.
The turning point came with the first MMP election of 1996. Labour failed to win office but Clark trounced National Prime Minister Jim Bolger in a television debate after finally being persuaded by advisers to undergo a "makeover" of her presentation.
Despite a continuing, occasional awkwardness with people, she practised a policy of inclusiveness after becoming Prime Minister in 1999, to the point of turning some of her opponents from within into loyal colleagues, as well as balancing her party's political coalitions on the tightrope of MMP.
Although ruthlessly pragmatic when she needed to be, such as when sacking errant ministers, she rewarded New Zealand First leader Winston Peters for his loyalty in what has proved to be the dying days of both their political careers.
In a pre-election Q&A session with the Herald, she indicated she couldn't relate to people saying they were "sick of Labour telling us what to do", saying she stood for maximum possible freedom of individuals within the constraints of democratic society.
