New Zealand Prime Minister-elect Luxon to get cracking on building coalition relationships

WELLINGTON – New Zealand’s Prime Minister-elect Christopher Luxon said on Monday that while his party was waiting for special votes to be counted, it would “get cracking” on building relationships with both ACT New Zealand and New Zealand First.

Mr Luxon’s centre-right National Party and preferred coalition partner ACT

won a razor-thin electoral victory last Saturday,

together securing 61 seats in the 121-seat Parliament.

While National and libertarian party ACT have the numbers to form a government on the current tally, roughly 567,000 special votes, around 20 per cent of the total, must still be counted.

The official result is due on Nov 3, and right-wing parties have historically lost at least a seat with the final count.

Mr Luxon, 53, a relative newcomer to politics and former airline executive, told a press conference on Monday that National would be waiting for the special votes to be counted before officially forming a government.

“We are working very strongly to build relationships and also to work through arrangements with respective parties. We are going to do that confidentially,” he said.

He added that he would ideally like to have a government formed before the Pacific Island Forum and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in early November, but that this will depend on the special votes and how negotiations have progressed.

New Zealand is currently being governed by a transitional government run by Labour.

Mr Luxon, a protege of former prime minister John Key, said the process of transition between the two governments was under way.

But Mr Luxon would not comment on current issues such as New Zealand’s response to Israel’s intense bombardment of Gaza, as they were the responsibility of the Labour government.

Newly elected Members of Parliament were in Wellington on Monday to begin their induction to Parliament. REUTERS