New Zealand holds general elections_English

The eligible voters in New Zealand began to cast their ballots on Saturday to elect members of the parliament.

A voter casts her ballot near Wellington, capital of New Zealand, on Nov. 8, 2008. New Zealand's eligible voters began to cast their ballots on Saturday to elect members of the parliament. A new government will also be formed after the election. (Xinhua/Huang Xingwei)Photo Gallery>>>

WELLINGTON, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- The eligible voters in New Zealand began to cast their ballots on Saturday to elect members of the parliament.

Some 2,700 polling stations around the country opened at 09:00 a.m. local time (2000 GMT Friday) and will close at 07:00 p.m. (0600 GMT Saturday). Nearly 3 million eligible voters were expected to cast their ballots. New Zealand's total population is 4.3 million.

At a polling station in Wellington, a middle-aged man named Stephen said that he would vote for the opposition National party, because he wanted to see some change. "The Labor has governed the country for nine years. Why not give the National an opportunity?"

An old pensioner named Paula said she would vote for Labor so she can hold on to the pension. "It is better the devil you know than the devil you don't know. I think the Labor has done a good job," she said.

The leaders of the two main parties are in Auckland as the country votes.

Labor Leader Helen Clark will cast her ballot at Kowhai Intermediate School in Mt Eden, in her Mt Albert electorate.

The National Party leader John Key will vote at Parnell District School, in the Epsom electorate.

Under the Electoral Law, each voter has a party vote and an electorate vote. The party vote will help decide the share of seats each party gets in the parliament. The electorate vote helps decide who becomes the local members of the parliament.

There are 63 general electorate seats, 7 Maori electorate seats and 50 list seats in the parliament.

A total of 19 registered political parties and 681 candidates were contesting the election, held every three years.

The preliminary election results were expected to be announced on Friday evening. The official results are expected on Nov. 22.

New Zealand's main opposition National Party leads the ruling Labor Party and is poised to win the election, according to the final round of polls released on Friday evening.

The last opinion poll released before the election puts the National Party ahead of Labor by 7.5 points. Four other polls published on Thursday and Friday also put National in the lead, but by a greater margin.

The Roy Morgan poll published on Friday evening put National on42 percent support, down one point from the previous poll, and Labor up 2.5 points to 34.5 percent - giving National a 7.5 percent lead.