2002 New Zealand general election
The 2002 New Zealand general election was held on 27 July 2002. It saw the reelection of Helen Clark’s Labour Party government, as well as the worst-ever performance by the opposition National Party in terms of seats won. In the election 683 candidates stood, and there were 14 registered parties with party lists.
About 2002 New Zealand general election in brief
The 2002 New Zealand general election was held on 27 July 2002. It saw the reelection of Helen Clark’s Labour Party government, as well as the worst-ever performance by the opposition National Party in terms of seats won. A controversial issue in the election campaign was the end of a moratorium on genetic engineering, strongly opposed by the Green Party. In the election 683 candidates stood, and there were 14 registered parties with party lists. There were 2,670,030 registered voters, the highest number for any election in New Zealand. However, only 77% of these registered voters chose to cast a vote, a considerable drop from previous elections. As most people expected, Labour was victorious. It did not, however, receive an absolute majority, gaining only 52 seats.
In general, it was a bad election for the parties of the right. The National Party, once referred to as ‘the natural party of government’, suffered its worst- ever electoral defeat. ACT New Zealand, National’s more right-wing neighbour, failed to capitalise on the exodus of National supporters, retaining the same number of seats as before. The Greens, who were now distanced from Labour over the genetic engineering controversy, gained nine seats. New Zealand First, a populist and nationalist party opposed to immigration, recovered from its serious losses in the 1999 election. The Progressive Coalition started by former Alliance leader Jim Anderton won two seats, and remained allied with Labour.
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This page is based on the article 2002 New Zealand general election published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 24, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
