Biscuits and body language amid New Zealand poll limbo

New Zealanders have been reduced to interpreting facial tics and biscuit choices as they wait for populist politician Winston Peter to decide the country's deadlocked general election. The maverick 72-year-old has kept the electorate on tenterhooks for more than three weeks after both major parties failed to win an outright majority in the September 23 poll. That leaves Peter's New Zealand First (NZF) with the deciding say under the country's proportional voting system, even though it only won seven percent of the vote. Peters, clearly relishing playing electoral powerbroker for the third time since 1996, has dragged on negotiations about forming a government. He was still refusing to say Monday when he would let the public know if he was supporting conservative Prime Minister Bill English or his centre-left Labour rival Jacinda Ardern. "I'm not answering any more questions," he told reporters after arriving in Wellington for a meeting of the NZF board. However, English appeared to dash hopes an announcement was imminent, saying talks have "got some time to go yet". "Negotiations are still ongoing," he told TV3. "There are a number of issues related to the formation of government that you would need to agree on before you actually had an agreement to form a government." In the absence of solid information, speculation has reached fever pitch about seemingly trivial matters that could offer a clue to Peters' thinking. Ardern took ginger nut and chocolate wheaten biscuits into a meeting with Peters last week -- both seen as old-school favourites likely to appeal to a septuagenarian’s tastes. The Labour leader also posted a Facebook update over the weekend on the talks with Peters in which she appeared to wink, prompting speculation she was sending a subtle message. "Do the eyes have it?" asked the New Zealand Herald, while stuff.co.nz added: "It's unclear whether the wink was intentional, but some speculated it meant Ardern would become the next prime minister." Body language expert Suzanne Masefield said Ardern appeared to be growing in confidence but English seemed nervous in recent media appearances. "There was a lot of anxiousness, there was quite a lot of hand clasping and playing with his hands, which is not like him," she told Newstalk ZB. Asked about Peters' demeanour, corporate consultant Masefield replied: "He looks exhausted." Peters, best known as an anti-immigration campaigner, has shown in the past he will support either side of politics if the right offer is made. He opted for National in 1996 in return for being made deputy prime minister and backed Labour in 2005 after it agreed to make him foreign minister.