Conservative former trader wins New Zealand election

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- New Zealanders chose a wealthy, conservative former financier Saturday to help navigate the country through the global financial meltdown, handing long-serving left-wing Prime Minister Helen Clark an election defeat.

John Key, the 47-year-old leader of the conservative National Party, swept easily to power in this South Pacific country of 4.1 million people, ousting Clark's Labour Party after nine years in office.

"Today, New Zealand has spoken, in their hundreds of thousands, they have voted for change," Key told supporters at a packed victory celebration in the country's largest city, Auckland.

New Zealand's farming export-dependent economy fell into recession early this year, and Key said the worldwide downturn is the most immediate problem for the country.

"The global financial crisis means that the road ahead may well be a rocky one," Key said. "Tomorrow, the hard work begins."

Before being elected to parliament in 2002, multimillionaire Key was a currency trader at Merrill Lynch, working in the United States and Singapore.

Key has promised a more right-leaning government than Clark's, which for almost a decade made global warming a key policy issue.

In a country where the environment is a mainstream political issue, Key has vowed to wind back Clark's greenhouse gas emission trading scheme to protect businesses from financial losses, and to reduce red tape he says entangles important dam projects.

Clark, who was seeking a historic fourth term that would have pushed her rule past a dozen years, accepted responsibility for the loss by quitting as Labour's leader -- effectively retiring to obscurity.

She blamed a "time-for-a-change factor and that took us out with the tide" for the election loss.

"So, with that it's over and out from me. Thank you New Zealand for the privilege of having been your prime minister for the last nine years, Kia ora Tatou," she said, reciting a farewell in the indigenous Maori language.

Key will not need the support of the indigenous Maori Party, which won five seats but will not hold the balance of power. He said he would reach out to the Maori Party anyway and seek their support in Parliament.

During the campaign, Clark accused Key of having a hidden right-wing agenda, which he denied.

Allies within Key's coalition indicated they would try to squelch a hard-right agenda.

"The last thing New Zealand needs now with a new government is an outburst of extremism," said United Future Party leader Peter Dunne, who is aligned with the Nationals and has been offered a ministerial post.

Also notable was a rise in the vote for the Maori Party, which won one more seat for a total of five, but two short of its target.

Voters cast ballots at more than 2,500 polling stations set up in schools, churches and community halls across the country, perhaps best known for providing the landscape for "Lord of the Rings" which was filmed there.

Foreign affairs and trade policies are unlikely to change under Key -- including the long-standing ban on nuclear-powered ships entering New Zealand ports that has rankled military ally the U.S. New Zealand's small number of troops doing reconstruction work in Afghanistan will remain. New Zealand has no troops in Iraq.

The U.S. State Department did not have any immediate comment on Key's election.

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Associated Press writer Ray Lilley contributed to this report.