was held on 25 November. There were 2,489,510 people officially registered to vote in the elections, making the election the first one in which there were more than two million registered voters. However, the electoral roll in 1978 was significantly out of date and contained numerous duplicate entries. The cause of this confusion was a major redistribution of electoral boundaries, which had been implemented the year before. The actual number of potential voters is estimated to have been about 2,100,000, and actual turnout is estimated to have been about 80% (as compared to the official turnout of only 68.70%), slightly lower than the turnout for the previous election. Summary of results The 1978 election saw the National Party win fifty-one seats in parliament, a majority of several seats. This allowed it to retain power. The Labour Party won forty seats. The Social Credit Party retained the Rangitikei seat, which it had won in a by-election shortly before the election. No other parties won seats, and there were no successful independent candidates. While National won a majority of seats in parliament, it did not actually win a majority of the vote. Labour received the highest number of votes, winning slightly more than forty percent. National, by contrast, won slightly less than forty percent. Social Credit, despite winning only one seat, actually received around sixteen percent of the vote. The election night result had National with more seats, but many seats had small majorities and it was conceivable that if special votes overturned enough electorates Labour could form a government. Ultimately this did not eventuate however. While the electorate was initially won by Malcolm Douglas (Labour), the result was overturned by the High Court and Winston Peters (National) became the MP for Hunua. Detailed results Party Totals Votes summary Results by electorate The tables below shows the results of the 1978 general election: Key |- |colspan=8 style="background-color:#FFDEAD" | General electorates |- |- | Hauraki | colspan=2 style="text-align:center; background-color:#ececec;" | New electorate | style="background-color:;" | | style="text-align:center;background-color:;" | Leo Schultz | style="text-align:right;" | 2,019 | style="background-color:;" | | style="text-align:center;" | Gordon Miller |- |- |colspan=8 style="background-color:#FFDEAD" | Māori electorates |- |} Table footnotes: Map Summary of changes For details about the winners of each individual electorate, see the article on the 39th Parliament. Electoral redistributions: A major reconfiguration of electorates and their boundaries occurred in 1977. This resulted in twenty-two electorates being dissolved