Wellington  - New Zealand's conservative National Party took an early lead over the ruling Labour coalition as votes were counted in Saturday's general election.

With 39 per cent of the party vote counted, television channels predicted the Nationals and their allies could have 67 seats in the new parliament against 49 for Labour and their Green coalition partners.

New Zealanders have two votes - one for their local constituency member of parliament and the other for a party. The party vote is the most important in deciding the government.

Wellington  - New Zealanders voted Saturday in a general election that could see the Labour-led coalition, which has governed for the last nine years, defeated by its conservative opponents, according to opinion polls.

The weather was fine in most of the country and officials tipped a record turnout, ahead of the 80 per cent of voters who cast their ballots at the last election in 2005.

Wellington - A man whose bride was killed in a car crash while being driven home from their wedding reception said he should have been in the car with her, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

Instead, Chinese immigrant Quiong Mao, 28, told the New Zealand Herald, he offered to drive home a guest who had too much to drink. It is a decision he said he would regret for the rest of his life.

Wellington - New Zealanders began voting Saturday in a general election that could see the Labour-led coalition, which has governed for the last nine years, defeated by its conservative opponents, according to opinion polls.

Labour's hopes of surviving a considerable swing to the right in voter sentiment depend on the polling of minor parties, who could prop it up in another coalition if they return enough people to the parliament of 120 to 123 members.

Wellington  - A new bride died in a car crash on the way home from her wedding reception in Auckland, police said Friday.

Yan Liu, 26, a Chinese immigrant, suffered fatal head injuries Thursday night when the car she was travelling in hit a traffic island in the suburb of Mount Wellington after the reception in a Chinese restaurant.

Her husband was not travelling in the same vehicle. Police said a man and a woman who were also in the car were in serious condition in hospital but the male driver had been discharged.

Yan Liu moved to New Zealand three years ago and worked at an early child-care centre.

Wellington - A new bride died in