By Xinhua,
Wellington : The 2,700 polling stations across New Zealand for the general election closed at 07:00 p.m. local time on Saturday (0600 GMT). Election officials said it has been a very busy day.
As of Friday, close to three million people were enrolled to vote, which was almost 95 percent of those eligible.
Chief Electoral Officer Robert Peden said a record number of advance votes were cast before Saturday, the Election Day.
“The latest figures we have on advanced voting is that about 267,000 advance votes were cast, which is about a 33 percent increase over 2005, or 67,000 voters.”
Peden said counting of these votes was underway, and it is hoped results will be released at about 8:30 p.m. (0730 GMT).
The Chief Electoral Office has a target of 10:00 p.m. (0900 GMT) for ballots to be counted from half the polling places, and for all to be counted by midnight (1100 GMT).
There are 63 general electorate seats, seven Maori electorate seats and 50 lists seats in the parliament.
A total of 19 registered political parties and 681 candidates were contesting the election, held every three years.