Defeat
By the time of the 1990 election the government was in chaos. Lange had resigned and Mike Moore had taken over from Lange's successor Geoffrey Palmer just eight weeks before the election. Jim Anderton had quit the party to form NewLabour, which represented the Labour Party's traditional values.
The election was a disaster for Labour. The party lost nearly half its seats, including one to Anderton. Anderton's NewLabour Party and the Greens took many votes from Labour, although the First Past the Post electoral system meant that their share of the vote was not reflected in the division of seats. The National Party won the election, forming the Fourth National Government. Labour would not regain power until 1999.
The disillusionment of the electorate was also reflected in referendums in 1992 and 1993 which resulted in electoral reform in the form of a change from First Past the Post to Mixed Member Proportional, a form of proportional representation.
Read more about this topic: Fourth Labour Government Of New Zealand
Famous quotes containing the word defeat:
“Victory has a hundred fathers but defeat is an orphan.”
—Galeazzo Ciano (1903–1944)
“Unkindness may do much,
And his unkindness may defeat my life,
But never taint my love.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Against my will, I became a witness to the most terrible defeat of reason and to the most savage triumph of brutality ever chronicled ... never before did a generation suffer such a moral setback after it had attained such intellectual heights.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)