New Zealand Elections

Last night I was fortunate enough to watch the
returns on television of the New Zealand national
election. It's interesting to see that other countries'
elections don't make much sense either. I thought
it was just this way in the U.S. Anyway, Helen
Clark (on the left) is the current Prime Minister and
is the head of the Labour Party. Donald Brash (on the
right) is the head of the National Party. Labour is
similar to the American Democrats and National is
similar to American Republicans. When all the votes
were tallied, Labor finished 1 seat ahead in Parliament.
All over right? Ahh, not so fast. You need not just a
majority, but a big enough majority to form the
government. There are 5 or so small political parties
that also got members elected to Parliament, including
the Green Party, New Zealand First Party, etc. Labour
and National both need the support of these small parties
to get a majority, so whoever these parties back will be
the real winnter and then either Clark or Brash will be
the Prime Minister...confusing...of course, and to make
matters worse, it might take a couple of weeks for
everything to be settled. Yikes!