The Opportunity Party is on course to enter New Zealand’s parliament for the first time, with rookie candidate Qiulae Wong leading the upstart group through a tightly contested election-night count.
With 35% of votes counted, the party had secured 5.4% of the vote, narrowly clearing the 5% threshold required for representation. Analysts expect its share to increase as out-of-electorate and overseas ballots are added.
Addressing supporters at Eden Park, Ms Wong said: “Sh** we did it!”
She added: “It’s looking very likely that after a decade, the Opportunity Party is going to make history tonight!”
The result could give Opportunity a significant role in determining the shape of the next government, although it remains unclear whether the party will hold the balance of power.
After about one-third of the votes had been counted, a coalition of National, ACT and NZ First was projected to hold a majority of just one seat.
Opportunity was founded a decade ago by economist Gareth Morgan as a party intended to move beyond the traditional left-right divide and pursue long-term solutions. It has drawn comparisons with Australia’s teal independents, sharing their colour and focusing on climate, tax fairness and integrity issues.
Ms Wong has said the party would be prepared to work with either side of politics. “If it is a Labor-led government, we will be pushing harder on having businesses as part of the solution,” she told AAP in Auckland this week.
“If it is a National-led government, we will be pushing them much harder on environmental issues.”
Prime Minister Chris Luxon had repeatedly ruled out working with Opportunity during the campaign. But senior minister Mark Mitchell adopted a less definitive position on Saturday night, saying it was “too early to say” and that he would not speculate while the results were still being counted.
“We have to operate inside an MMP (mixed member proportional) environment and … at the moment we’re waiting to see what the results are,” he told TVNZ.
The left-wing Greens, on 14%, and right-wing ACT, on 10.6%, also appeared set to record their strongest results.
