New Zealand Voters Deal Ruling Labor Party a Resounding Defeat

Voters booted out New Zealand’s Labor Party on Saturday, humiliating Prime Minister Mike Moore and giving the opposition National Party the biggest election victory in more than half a century.

Labor’s rout after six turbulent years in power was just the disaster that Moore had promised to avert when he took the party leadership from Geoffrey Palmer only eight weeks ago.

“It was a very short honeymoon. Not even a one-night stand, was it?” a crestfallen Moore said after conceding defeat.

Provisional results brought sweet revenge for National Party leader Jim Bolger, long portrayed by Labor as a bumbling farmer unfit to lead the nation.

Both Labor and the National Party had pledged to continue the country’s anti-nuclear policy, adopted in 1984 under former Prime Minister David Lange. It bars nuclear-powered ships and ships with nuclear weapons from making port calls, and it led to an estrangement in ties with Washington.

The United States in 1986 cut high-level contacts with New Zealand and dropped the country from the ANZUS military alliance, which also includes Australia.

The National Party, however, promised to seek some sort of reconciliation with Washington.

Nine of the 18 Labor Cabinet ministers lost their seats in Parliament as voters showed their frustration over record unemployment, high interest rates and an economy mired in recession.

The center-right National Party took 68 of the 97 seats while Labor’s representation was halved, to just 28.