I note that 100 percent/120 seats = 0.833 percent/seat ---------- NZ govt slips to minority on final election count WELLINGTON, Dec 10 (Reuters) - The New Zealand coalition government slipped into a minority in parliament when the final election count on Friday took one seat from the Labour Party and gave it to the Greens. The change meant that the Labour/Alliance coalition government has 59 seats in the single-chamber 120 seat parliament, and is beholden to minor parties to pass legislation. The Greens, who now have seven seats, have pledged to support the coalition on matters of confidence and supply. The markets, which have calmly watched the recount take place over several days, took the news calmly. There was hardly a wobble in the New Zealand dollar which continued to trade around $0.5070. The final tally of seats, subject to electorate recounts, puts centre-left Labour on 49 seats, conservative National (the outgoing government) on 39 seats, the left wing Alliance on 10 seats, free market ACT on nine seats, the environmentalist Greens on seven seats, nationalist New Zealand First on five seats and centrist United on one. Prior to the final count, the Labour/Alliance coalition was evenly poised on 60 seats out of 120. The Greens had six seats. Greens co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons told Radio New Zealand that the relationship between her party and the government was unchanged. ``Even before this extra seat changed they needed us in order to continue governing and we had agreed on a cooperative relationship.'' The Greens got the extra seat because their share of the national list vote, under New Zealand's German-style mixed member proportional system, rose to 5.2 percent from 4.9 percent on election night on November 27. While National and ACT will make up the opposition, the Labour/Alliance government of Prime Minister Helen Clark will be able to seek votes from the non-aligned NZ First and United parties on individual votes that are not supported by the Greens. The situation may yet change again as National is seeking a recount in the constituency of Tauranga where NZ First leader and former deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is hanging on by 62 votes. If Peters loses that seat his party will lose all its MPs as NZ First recorded 4.3 percent list vote support, short of the five percent threshold for parliamentary representation without a constituency win. 17:29 12-09-99