2023 New Zealand general election (14 October)

[TheTide]

I think the most recent government which had more than one election winning leader/Prime Minister was the 1935-1949 Labour government of Savage and Fraser. The tendency since then has been for a popular and/or charismatic leader to hand over to a lesser regarded figure at the tail end of the government, with the latter leading the governing party out of office. Occasionally there are the likes of Muldoon and Clark who stay all the way through.

This is to say that Hipkins still being Prime Minister after the negotiations would be quite a feat.

[TheTide]

If anything National has trickled upwards a bit in the last few percent of the vote.

Not counting the likes of NZ First and Social Credit as part of the right, then this is the highest vote for the right since 1951 by my calculations.

[TheTide]

Most lighthearted moment of the night (particularly from a left POV) - Hipkins namedropped a hitherto unknown partner called "Tony" in his concession speech. Once the camera cutback to the studio, the presenters were scrambling to find out who this "Tony" is, what gender this person is etc.

[TheTide]

Most lighthearted moment of the night (particularly from a left POV) - Hipkins namedropped a hitherto unknown partner called "Tony" in his concession speech. Once the camera cutback to the studio, the presenters were scrambling to find out who this "Tony" is, what gender this person is etc.

Have they found anything yet?

One of the presenters repeated a rumour she'd heard that was possibly (in her words) libelous.