By Jill Fraser

MELBOURNE, Australia

After a multi-million dollar year-long referendum on changing the country's emblem, more than two million New Zealanders have flown the flag of democracy at its proudest -- the New Zealand Flag is staying.

On Thursday, an overwhelming majority chose to ignore a carefully vetoed new design for the new flag, instead choosing to stick with the version that has been the official New Zealand emblem since 1902.

"The flag process was truly democratic - that's something we can all run up the flag pole and salute," tweeted New Zealand Listener Editor Pamela Stirling, using the competitions hashtag #nzflag.

Others, however, chose to focus on the NZ$26 million ($17.4 million) cost of the two referendums prior to Thursday's vote.

Fellow Twitter user Melanie Bracewell ‏tweeted: "I wish we just divided the 26 million up and got $6 each instead of this #nzflag."

Others, meanwhile, quickly sketched satirical designs inspired by competitions worldwide, and tweeted them.

"Making my submission for the next referendum early.#nzflag," wrote New Zealander Kristin Hall, with a roughly drawn image of a red fern on a grey background, emblazoned with the scrawl "Flaggy McFlagface".

A front-runner in a recent U.K. government Internet competition to find a name for a $287 million polar research vessel is "R.R.S. Boaty McBoatface".

Preliminary results announced at 8.30 p.m. (0730GMT) showed that 1,200,003 (56.6 percent) of voters wanted to keep the old emblem, while just 915,008 (43.2 percent) opted for a new design by Kyle Lockwood featuring a silver fern.

Thursday's vote was between the original flag -- which the Union Jack, the flag of the United Kingdom, adorns -- and a new design that depicts a white fern on black and blue background with four red stars.

The fern is widely considered a national symbol, but the design had been described by some critics as looking like a corporate logo, while others likened it to a beach towel.

The alternative design had been whittled down from more than 10,000 others which were submitted after Prime Minister John Key -- in favor of change -- announced the referendum in Oct. 2014.

Speaking to reporters in Auckland Airport after the vote, the PM said he respected New Zealand's choice.

Asked whether the referendum process had been worth NZ$26 million, he said it had sparked an "enormous" countrywide healthy debate.

The results of the referendum are expected be confirmed March 30.