1993 New Zealand general election

1993 New Zealand general election

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All 99 seats in the House of Representatives 50 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout	1,922,796 (82.82%)
First party Second party   Leader Jim Bolger Mike Moore Party National Labour Leader since 26 March 1986 4 September 1990 Leader's seat King Country Christchurch North Last election 67 seats, 47.82% 29 seats, 35.14% Seats before 63 29 Seats won 50 45 Seat change 13 16 Popular vote 673,892 666,759 Percentage 35.05% 34.68% Swing 12.77% 0.46%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Jim Anderton Winston Peters Party Alliance NZ First Leader since 1 December 1991 18 July 1993 Leader's seat Sydenham Tauranga Last election 1 seat, 14.28%[1] New party Seats before 2 2 Seats won 2 2 Seat change Popular vote 350,063 161,481 Percentage 18.21% 8.40% Swing 3.93%[1] 8.40%
Results by electorate, shaded by winning margin
Prime Minister before election Jim Bolger National Subsequent Prime Minister Jim Bolger National

The 1993 New Zealand general election was held on 6 November 1993 to determine the composition of the 44th New Zealand Parliament. Voters elected 99 members to the House of Representatives, up from 97 members at the 1990 election. The election was held concurrently with an electoral reform referendum to replace the first-past-the-post system, with all members elected from single-member electorates, with mixed-member proportional representation. It saw the governing National Party, led by Jim Bolger, win a second term in office, despite a major swing away from National in both seats and votes, and the carrying of the referendum by 53.9% to 46.1%.^[2]

Having broken electoral campaign promises and embarked on supply-side economics and wide-sweeping cuts during his first term, Bolger led the most unpopular government since the Great Depression.^[3] The neoliberal actions of Ruth Richardson, his Minister of Finance, were termed Ruthanasia by the media, and her Mother of all Budgets in 1991 caused huge protests.^[3] By September 1991, support for National had plummeted to a hitherto unprecedented polling low of 22%. Mike Moore, ousted by Bolger in a landslide just three years before, attacked National's caucus as dangerous right-wing extremists, and enjoyed considerable personal popularity. While the high unemployment Ruthanasia had caused had recovered somewhat by 1993, Bolger's approval ratings remained dire against Moore up until election day.^[4]

With a vote difference of just 7,133 between the two major parties, the election was one of the closest in New Zealand history. Bolger's 17-seat majority gained in 1990 was pared back to a bare majority of one seat. The Labour Party, led by former Prime Minister Mike Moore, enjoyed a 16-seat rise and almost won outright. The two smaller parties - Winston Peters' New Zealand First, which he formed after leaving National over conflict with their economic policy, and Jim Anderton's Alliance of parties to the left of Labour - both outperformed expectations and won significant shares of the vote. However, the first-past-the-post system kept them from gaining more than two seats each.

If MMP had been in use, the left-wing bloc of Labour and the Alliance – having secured a larger share of the vote than National or New Zealand First – would likely have formed a government. This was the last time prior to the 2020 election where a party won an absolute majority of seats.