The Winner of the New Zealand Flag Referendum
- Publish date
- Friday, 11 Dec 2015, 8:50PM
Kyle Lockwood's blue and black silver fern flag has the most preliminary votes in the flag referendum.
The Electoral Commission said it received 1,527,042 votes, which included 148,022 informal votes (9.7 per cent) and 2476 invalid votes (0.16 per cent).
The voter turnout was 48.16 per cent of registered voters.
The flag, designed by Kyle Lockwood, won in the fourth round of voting, taking 50.53 per cent of the vote.
The next most preferred flag design was Lockwood's red, white and blue flag, which polled 49.47 per cent.
It was followed by Red Peak, the black and white silver fern, and the koru.
A final result in the narrowly-fought contest will be announced on Tuesday, once late votes and overseas ballot papers have been counted.
The margin of victory is so small that the final result could change.
In the first round of voting, Mr Lockwood's red-coloured flag received the most votes.
But it failed to get a clear 50 per cent majority. That meant the Andrew Fyfe-designed Koru was eliminated from voting as the lowest-ranked flag.
The Silver Fern (Black and White) was the second flag to be eliminated, followed by Red Peak.
