Latest: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon waited until after midnight to address his party’s election night function and claimed a pathway to forming the next government, while saying the result was too close to call, Australian Associated Press reported. With 97 percent of the count completed, before special votes, the Electoral Commission projected 67 seats for National, ACT and New Zealand First against 63 for Labour, the Greens and Te Pati Maori combined with the Opportunity Party, with National on 29.3 percent of the party vote and Labour on 29.2 percent. Labour leader Chris Hipkins did not concede, saying the exact shape of the next government would not be known for a while. National lost senior ministers, with Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Defence Minister Paul Goldsmith conceding their electorate races, and some electorate margins were thin enough for special votes to matter, including Hamilton East at 456 votes and Wairarapa at 69 votes on the night.
New Zealanders voted on Saturday in a general election that produced no clear winner. Polls closed at 7 p.m. local time, and the Electoral Commission released preliminary results progressively through the night. In the late preliminary count the governing National Party of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and the Labour Party of Chris Hipkins were tied at about 29.3 percent of the party vote each, a result Australian Associated Press described at the halfway mark as a deadlock, with National on 29.4 percent and Labour on 29.3 percent at 60 percent counted. Deutsche Welle likewise reported the race too close to call. Neither main party came close to a majority on its own.
The seat arithmetic is what matters under New Zealand’s mixed member proportional system, and it stayed on a knife edge all night. Electoral Commission projections reported through the evening put the governing parties, National with ACT and New Zealand First, on 66 to 68 seats, against 56 seats for Labour, the Greens and Te Pati Maori, with the centrist Opportunity Party, which cleared the 5 percent threshold on about 5.9 percent, holding about seven seats. Because National won more electorate seats than its party vote share would normally deliver, the projected Parliament expanded to between 129 and 131 seats, so the majority line itself moved between 65 and 66 seats during the count. A single electorate changing hands could still move the balance.
Nothing about this result is final. The preliminary count covers advance and election day ordinary votes only. Special votes, cast by overseas voters and by voters outside their home electorate, are excluded. The Commission expected about 700,000 special votes this year, and more than 172,000 had already been recorded early in the night. Special votes have historically favoured parties on the left, which is one reason neither bloc can treat the election night projection as settled.
The campaign was fought on the cost of living and a weak economy, and the count leaves both main parties below 30 percent, a sign of the voter disillusionment reporting through the night kept returning to. ACT recorded about 10.9 percent, its strongest result, the Greens about 13.3 to 13.7 percent, and New Zealand First about 9.8 percent. National’s party vote fell sharply from the 38 percent it won at the previous election, even as it held its electorate advantage.
The next fixed point is the official result. The Electoral Commission will declare official results on Friday, November 27, 2026, and the writ is due back on December 3. Coalition negotiations can begin on the preliminary numbers, but any agreement struck before November 27 rests on a count that can still change. Until then the honest status of this election is reported, not decided: a tied party vote, a projected governing majority of one to two seats, and three weeks of counting between New Zealand and its next government.