Polls Closed in The New Zealand 2005 General Election

September 17, 2005

At 07:00 UTC today (19:00 NZST, local time), the polls closed in the New Zealand general election, 2005.

Nearly three million people were eligible to vote.

Turn out was strong, turnout results are predicted to be to be higher than the 2002 turn out (77%)

Under New Zealand's MMP system, parties must win either a electorate seat or 5% of the party vote to win a seat in the 120-seat, parliament.

Preliminary election results will be on Wikinews as they come through it is expected that all votes will be counted by 11:30 UTC (23:30 NZST)

The official results are expected to be available by Saturday, 1 October 2005, on the Chief Electoral Office 2005 General Election Results website