2002 New Zealand general election

The 2002 New Zealand general election was held on 27 July 2002 to determine the composition of the 47th New Zealand Parliament. It saw the reelection of Helen Clark's Labour Party government, as well as the worst-ever performance by the opposition National Party (the 2020 election would see it suffer a greater defeat in terms of net loss of seats).

2002 New Zealand general election
27 July 2002 (2002-07-27)
All 120 seats in the House of Representatives
61 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout2,055,404 (76.98%) 7.79%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Helen Clark Bill English Winston Peters
Party Labour National NZ First
Leader since 1 December 1993 8 October 2001 18 July 1993
Leader's seat Mount Albert Clutha-Southland Tauranga
Last election 49 seats, 38.74% 39 seats, 30.50% 5 seats, 4.26%
Seats won 52 27 13
Seat change 3 12 8
Electorate vote 891,866
44.69%
2.94		 609,458
30.54%
1.38		 79,380
3.98%
0.21
Party vote 838,219
41.26%
2.52		 425,310
20.93%
9.57		 210,912
10.38%
6.12
  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Richard Prebble Rod Donald
Jeanette Fitzsimons		 Peter Dunne
Party ACT Green United Future New Zealand
Leader since 26 March 1996 21 May 1995 16 November 2000
Leader's seat List List
List
(lost Coromandel)		 Ohariu-Belmont
Last election 9 seats, 7.04% 7 seats, 5.16% 1 seat, 1.65%a
Seats won 9 9 8
Seat change 0 2 7
Electorate vote 70,888
3.55%
0.97		 106,717
5.35%
1.14		 92,484
4.63%
2.59
Party vote 145,078
7.14%
0.10		 142,250
7.00%
1.84		 135,918
6.69%
5.04
  Seventh party Eighth party
 
Leader Jim Anderton Laila Harré
Party Progressive Alliance
Leader since 27 July 2002 20 April 2002
Leader's seat Wigram List
(lost seat)
Last election Not yet founded 10 seats, 7.74%
Seats won 2 0
Seat change 2 10
Electorate vote 36,647
1.84%
new		 33,655
1.69%
5.21
Party vote 34,542
1.70%
new		 25,888
1.27%
6.47
Results by electorate, shaded by winning margin
Prime Minister before election

Helen Clark
Labour

 Subsequent Prime Minister

Helen Clark
Labour

A controversial issue in the election campaign was the end of a moratorium on genetic engineering, strongly opposed by the Green Party. Some commentators have claimed that the tension between Labour and the Greens on this issue was a more notable part of the campaign than any tension between Labour and its traditional right-wing opponents. The release of Nicky Hager's book Seeds of Distrust prior to the election also sparked much debate. The book examined how the government handled the contamination of a shipment of imported corn with genetically modified seeds. Helen Clark called the Greens "goths and anarcho-feminists" during the campaign.

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