1 October 2005

Greens disappointed to lose Nandor from Parliament

The Green Party is disappointed the party was just 1,246 votes short of getting a seventh MP in the next Parliament, but is pleased the final election results confirm Helen Clark will be the next Prime Minister of New Zealand.

"We're deeply saddened that Nandor will no longer be an MP but are glad that the centre-left is now in an even stronger position to form the next government," Green Co-Leader Jeanette Fitzsimons says.

"We will certainly be making the most of the six MPs we do have and playing a strong role in the next government that Helen Clark will now be able to form.

"The silver lining in the final election results is that the margin between Labour and National has doubled, and Helen can now work with her allies to form the next government."

The Greens' other Co-Leader, Rod Donald, said the party was desperately close to gaining a seventh MP.

"Although we were quietly confident that we could repeat our 1999 and 2002 successes and pick up an extra seat on the specials, this time we fell agonizingly short. While our final result is a marked improvement on the election night result - from 5.07% to 5.30% - that wasn't quite enough to get Nandor back.

"By our calculations, had the Greens won 1,246 extra votes - or 0.0545% of the total - we would have got an extra MP off the National Party. In 1999, we got seven MPs with 5.16%. It's very sad that this year 5.30% wasn't enough."

Mr Donald said Nandor would be a "big loss" to Parliament.

"Nandor has made a considerable contribution to Parliament over the past six years. His Clean Slate Bill became law, he was influential in the development of the Supreme Court, and he helped to make our Parliament a genuine House of Representatives. I have no doubt that Nandor will continue to campaign hard for the issues he cares deeply about."

The Co-Leaders said the Greens were looking forward to negotiating with Helen Clark from Monday.

"Our goal now is to make the best contribution we can to the next government of New Zealand. We look forward to talking with Labour about what that contribution will be."

ENDS

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