Brash deferred conceding defeat until 1 October, when National's election-night 49 seats fell to 48 after special votes were counted.

National's gains apparently came mainly at the expense of smaller parties, while Labour won only two seats less than in 2002.

The table below shows the results of the 2005 general election: Key: MPs returned via party lists, and unsuccessful candidates, were as follows:[6][7] 1 Rod Donald died before being sworn in as MP.

3 Brian Connell retired from Parliament effective 31 August 2008, leaving his seat of Rakaia vacant.

Both New Zealand First and United Future said they would not support a Labour-led coalition which included Greens in Cabinet posts.

[8] Brash had only one possible scenario to become Prime Minister: a centre-right coalition with United Future and ACT (two seats, down seven).

Given the election results, however, such a coalition would have required the confidence-and-supply votes of both New Zealand First and the Māori Party.

The new government as eventually formed consisted of Labour and Progressive in coalition, while New Zealand First and United Future entered agreements of support on confidence and supply motions.

However, its junior coalition partner, the Alliance, lost most of its support after internal conflict and disagreement and failed to win parliamentary representation.

The Labour-Progressive coalition then obtained an agreement of support ("confidence and supply") from United Future, enabling it to form a stable minority government.

The National Party, Labour's main opponents, suffered a major defeat, winning only 21% of the vote (22.5% of the seats), its weakest showing in an election.

A major boost to this campaign came with his "Orewa speech" (27 January 2004), in which he attacked the Labour-dominated government for giving "special treatment" to the Māori population, particularly over the foreshore and seabed controversy.

The release by the National Party of a series of tax-reform proposals in August 2005 appeared to correlate with an increase in its ratings in the polls.

New Zealand operates on a system whereby the Electoral Commission allocates funding for advertising on television and on radio.

*Must register for funding Source: Electoral Commission Police investigated six political parties for alleged breaches of election-spending rules relating to the 2005 election, but brought no prosecutions,[12] determining that "there was insufficient evidence to indicate that an offence under s214b of the Electoral Act had been committed.

"[13] The Auditor-General has also investigated publicly funded party-advertising for the 2005 election, with a leaked preliminary finding of much of the spending as unlawful.