Labour seven MPs short of a dream

By HELEN TUNNAH

Labour's dreams of it and Jim Anderton governing alone were dashed on Saturday, but party chiefs remain upbeat, with president Mike Williams saying he is "delighted" with the outcome.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said Labour had achieved its objective of being returned to lead a "stable, strong and progressive" Government.

Labour pulled just over 41 per cent of the vote, an increase of 2.5 percentage points on 1999 and enough to deliver it three extra MPs to take its total to 52.

It is clearly dominant in the 120-seat Parliament, but the result was not the emphatic victory that seemed possible when the campaign began last month.

Now, Labour and Mr Anderton's two-MP Progressive Coalition can form a minority coalition of 54, seven short of a majority.

When Helen Clark called the election in mid-June, four months early, Labour had hoped to take better advantage of buoyant poll ratings. Then the party was polling at more than 50 per cent, eventually peaking in the mid-50s.

It has been a steady slide since.

Labour will now need the support of either the Green Party, United Future or even New Zealand First on money supply and confidence votes for its second three-year term.

Mr Williams said yesterday that he never thought the high poll ratings would hold, and he was more than happy with Labour's performance.

"We won extra votes while in Government, which is a very difficult thing to do. We snatched a couple of electorate seats. The way the votes are split, Helen has a lot of options."

He said Labour's ratings had been hurt by the acrimonious TV3 interview between Helen Clark and presenter John Campbell over claims about genetically modified corn.

"I'm very realistic and I know how difficult it is for any party to improve its position in Government, so I never believed the 50, 48 [per cent] etc.

"We would have done better, but the John Campbell attack cost us about 4 per cent - we only got 1 back."

Mr Williams said Helen Clark's own attacks on her potential coalition allies, and Labour's spell of negative advertising, had not harmed the party.

He had expected the Greens to perform better, and said United Future had benefited from people not knowing much about it.

"It was a very, very strange election. There was a group of voters that were cushions - they bore the impression of the last person that sat on them."

He said Labour had won more than half the electorate vote, 51 per cent, and picking up Otago had been a bonus.

However, it still seemed people had experimented with their party vote.

"I think knowledge of MMP has declined since its inception."

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