Premier Is Reelected to a Second Term

New Zealanders gave Prime Minister Helen Clark a historic second term after she called early elections to capitalize on a strong economy that pulled the country through a global slump largely untouched.

Draped in flower necklaces, Clark said in Auckland that she will try to form a minority coalition government. Her Labor Party won 52 seats in the 120-seat Parliament, up three from the last election.

Clark, a 52-year-old former political science university lecturer, is the first New Zealand woman to win back-to-back elections. Her main campaign pledge was to offer three more years of stable government.