New Zealand’s governing National Party is on course for victory in the general election according to latest results

With most of the of the votes counted, PM John Key’s party held 49%, with the opposition Labour Party lagging behind on 24%. The Greens had 10% and that means the National Party will have an outright majority under the proportional representation system

Key has recently been forced to defend his National Party against allegations of dirty politics and planning mass domestic surveillance, but he now looks set to win his third term in office.

It looks like NZ First will bring in 11 MPs with a vote of 9% which is above the last election’s 7% result, but Peters says he won’t be playing kingmaker as expected but warned New Zealand was in for a hard time as a country.

I believe the country will come to reflect on tonight with some serious concern because what was plain to the country, that is if you carry on like we are things will get better, certainly will not be the case.

Mark my words, in the space of a very short time, people will think differently in this country

Tough times ahead still for Key?

I've won. Now stop bugging me ,er I mean..

I’ve won. Now stop bugging me. Er, I mean…

The BBC has more here ,Yahoo NZ here, TVNZ here and I’m sure our Kiwi readers will keep us posted in this thread too.

NZDUSD closed in NY at 0.8138.