Labor Wins In New Zealand

After nine years in opposition, Helen Clark's Labor Party swept to power in Saturday's general election at the head of a center-left coalition, pledging a more economically fair society for New Zealand.

Celebrating victory at a party in Auckland, Clark, 49, promised "a fair society, good education, good health system, dignity in retirement and an absolute commitment to a growing economy which shares opportunity and work."

An emotional Prime Minister Jenny Shipley, who won her post in November 1997, conceded defeat late Saturday.

"It appears that New Zealand has decided it is time for a change," Shipley told supporters, her voice cracking. "I have spoken to the Right Honorable Helen Clark, and I have warmly congratulated her on her success."

With all but a handful of votes counted, Labor was shown winning 52 seats, up from 37 in the 1996 election. The left-wing Alliance party, part of Clark's coalition, had 11 seats, down two from 1996. Shipley's conservative National party was down from 44 to 41 seats in the 120-seat parliament.

The Greens, fighting their first election, fell just 0.1 percent short of the five percent support needed for a share in parliament.

Clark told supporters, "We are on the cusp of a new century, and we can have a fresh start."

Shipley had appealed to the nation to stick with her free-market policies, and offered tax cuts for individuals and businesses.

But New Zealanders instead backed Clark's pledge to raise taxes to help fund improvements in social and health services. Clark also vowed to set up a venture capital fund for new businesses.

Lawyer Toby Norgate, a National voter, grudgingly accepted that Clark would likely do a good job. "She has been around a while so she has experience," he said. "She's looking better now than she ever has."

The daughter of a dairy farmer, Clark rose from rural New Zealand to lecture in political science at Aukland University before entering parliament in 1981.

She was a health minister and deputy leader in the last Labor government from 1987-90, and has been leader of the opposition since 1993.

Clark has refined her sometimes blunt and haughty style in the election run-up, but still she is accused of suffering from a charisma deficit.

"She's no Tony Blair or Bill Clinton," Wellington accountant David Homewood said ahead of the vote.

Clark based her low-key, mistake-free election campaign on the one that gave Blair a landslide victory in the last British election, and claimed to represent the same "Third Way" centrist consensus policies put forward by Blair and other Labor leaders around the world.

Turnout was high on Saturday, with almost 90 percent of New Zealand's 2.5 million registered voters casting ballots.