New Zealand's governing Labour Party has endorsed the leftist Green Party as a likely coalition partner after next month's election in an effort to ensure Prime Minister Helen Clark wins a third straight term.
The move marks the first time in six years political parties have made such a pledge before voters go to the polls and aims to counteract a resurgence in support for the center-right National Party ahead of the Sept. 17 election.
Green Party co-leader Rod Donald yesterday said that his party was willing and ready to work with Labour in a coalition government.
"By declaring which side we're on we're giving voters real certainty about the future," Donald said.
Labour Party strategist and Cabinet minister Pete Hodgson said the party was giving a firm signal that a coalition with the Greens "certainly is a real option."
"We're signaling strongly that we've worked with the Greens in the past [three years] and are prepared to do so again," he said.
The Greens currently have nine lawmakers in New Zealand's 120-seat parliament, while Labour has 51.
The two parties fell out ahead of the 2002 election in a damaging row over genetically engineered food that was blamed for costing Labour and the Greens votes.
Auckland University political studies professor Jack Vowles said that with the Greens lagging in the polls and Labour facing a strong National Party, "Labour thinks [the Greens] need a bit of a leg up" to ensure the party is back in the nation's parliament after the election.
The Greens are polling around 5 percent nationwide -- the minimum vote a party needs to ensure its lawmakers are elected under the nation's proportional representation voting system.
Vowles said Labour was also making a bid to ensure the Greens can provide it with coalition support when it comes to forming a government.
The two leftist parties "obviously feel they could work together," he said.
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