New Zealand Prime Minister-elect John Key said Nov. 10 he had won enough support to form a new government by mid-month, after meetings with two small parties.

Key, a wealthy former currency market trader, unseated long-serving center-left Prime Minister Helen Clark in an election Nov. 8, amid concerns over a recession exacerbated by the global financial meltdown.

Key's National Party won 59 seats in the general election, leaving them shy of the 63 needed to form a government.

Key said Nov. 10 the Act Party agreed to join a ruling coalition in exchange for two non-Cabinet posts. The rightist party's support gives the new coalition control of 64 of the 122 seats in Parliament. "There will be a National-led government," Key said, adding that the deal with the Act Party would not affect his determination to govern from the center.