If the vote had been a first-past-the-post one, it would have, but thanks to the vagaries of the preferential voting system the government elected to employ, the marginally less popular iteration now has a slight edge.
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Voter turn out was 48.16 per cent, which Mulholland said was pleasing.
“The number of informal votes was thankfully lower than we expected”.
About 43% of eligible voters are thought to have taken part in the referendum, which has divided opinion in New Zealand over its cost and timing.
The flag, designed by Kyle Lockwood, won in the fourth round of voting, taking 50.53 per cent of the vote.
However, there are plenty of New Zealanders who want to keep their current flag.
But opposition leader Andrew Little said many people had protested the referendum by casting votes that were ineligible to be counted.
The NZ First leader was no fan of tonight’s victor.
The Koru was excluded first, then the black and white fern. Deputy Prime Minister Bill English says the result shows strong public interest in the future of the nation’s flag.
The country’s Electoral Commission announced on Friday that a design by Kyle Lockwood was the likely “preferred alternative” to the current flag.
The preliminary result was announced by the New Zealand Election Commission on Friday, with 1,527,042 votes cast. About 10 percent of all votes were ineligible.
Voters are asked to rank five alternative flag designs.
Returned and Services’ Association (RSA) national president BJ Clark said he was still confident the current flag would be retained despite the selection of Kyle Lockwood’s blue and black silver fern flag.
The result of the first flag referendum is just hours away.
He had previously nominated the winning design as his favourite, describing the silver fern as an instantly recognisable symbol of New Zealand.
But the results suggest it is nearly certain that Lockwood’s blue design will be pitted against the current flag in a second and final postal referendum to be held from March 3 to 24.
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New Zealand singer Lizzie Marvelly, however, wasn’t too impressed.
