Jacinda Ardern, leader of the Labour Party, is set to become prime minister after the minority New Zealand First party chose a coalition.

The announcement on Thursday comes one month after the election ended in a stalemate.

The charismatic 37-year old Ardern almost single-handedly dragged Labour back into the race after taking over the party's leadership in August. She won 35.8 percent of the votes, claiming 45 seats.

By comparison, the ruling conservative National Party - led by outgoing Prime Minister Bill English - took 46 percent and 58 seats, three less than the required 61 needed to govern.

New Zealand First won nine seats.

Because there was no clear winner, it was down to Winston Peters of the minority New Zealand First party to choose which two parties would form a coalitionpragmatism. Romney isn't perfect, she said, but Obama is far worse, and abortion opponents "have the power to make Romney follow through on his commitments" -- if he is elected.

"Politics isn't a science; it is not the art of the perfect," she said. "It's a tool."

If anti-abortion groups can in fact preach that message of political realism, it could prove crucial for Romney, who has long struggled to present a clear position on abortion and reproductive rights.

As governor of Massachusetts a decade ago, Romney strongly supported abortion rights and said he was "effectively pro-choice." The health care plan he shepherded into law, which was a model for Obama's 2010 national reform, even included taxpayer funding for abortions.

In 2005, as Romney began his quest for the Republican presidential nomination,