Election 2026

Labour's Michael Wood is quietly confident he'll get back Auckland's Mount Roskill seat - from National's Carlos Cheung.

Wood is narrowly leading on preliminary results.

He says special votes could see his margin increase.

"There's actually the possibility that that number moves out a little bit more in our favour, but let's just hold fire."

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Senior National MP Mark Mitchell admits the campaign to engineer an overhang distracted from the party's campaign. 

Preliminary results give National, ACT and New Zealand First 67 seats, Labour, the Greens and Te Pati Māori 57 and Opportunity 7 seats. 

The Electoral Commission estimates almost 400,000 special votes are still to come.

National's overhang gives it no list MPs, putting Nicola Willis, Paul Goldsmith and Chris Bishop out of Parliament. 
 
Mitchell says they'll be a big loss.

"It just felt like we were sort of campaigning against weird campaigns like that throughout the whole campaign. Without a doubt, the split vote campaign was a big distraction." 

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Former Labour leader Phil Goff hasn't given up on the prospect of a left-wing Government, despite last night's preliminary results.

The data shows that the right bloc currently has a clearer path to getting into Government, but there's still 400,000 special votes to be counted.

Goff says New Zealand needed a decisive vote - and the nation didn't get it.

"We won't know, actually, until the 27th of November - or maybe even a little bit later, if there's a vote recount ordered. We won't know for another three weeks what the actual result is." 

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David Seymour says he's stoked ACT secured a record-high party vote for the third election in a row.

The provisional results have the party on 10.9 percent, giving them 13 seats so far.

But the ACT leader says the only thing that's certain now is that nothing will be clear for another three weeks.

"We might not be in Government, and you've still got this Opportunity thing, you've still got this confusion about how their constitution works - if they want to go with us will they be allowed to?"

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New Zealand First is celebrating the party's 12 seats on last night's preliminary tally.  

Deputy leader Shane Jones says anything could happen at this stage, but he doesn't think it's likely they'll have to talk to Opportunity. 

"Let's face it, the Opportunity Party has done a fantastic job at seducing the opinion makers and the newsroom culture and the media of New Zealand."

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The Greens are celebrating a record election result, with preliminary data showing the party got 13.3 percent of the total vote.

Co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick says the party's team left it all on the floor, and is proud of its grassroots, community-based campaign.

"It's conversations, mate, it's conversations that change the world - and we dared to put forward the idea this election that if New Zealanders just looked each other in the eye and had conversations about the stuff that really mattered to us, then maybe we could build a better country." 

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National's campaign chair has mixed feelings about the provisional election results.

They give National, ACT and New Zealand First 67 seats, with Labour, the Greens and Te Pati Maori on 57, and Opportunity with 7.

The Electoral Commission estimates almost 400,000 special votes are still to be counted.

Simeon Brown says things are positive - with a sad edge.

"It's really challenging and bittersweet - I mean, I think at this stage we feel like we've got a confident pathway to victory and to form a Government. But at the same time, we've lost some really important people."

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Green Party Co-Leader Chlöe Swarbrick isn't taking her, or her party's, success for granted. 

The Greens are currently sitting on 13.3%, with 15 safe seats, including Swarbricks own Auckland Central electorate. 

She told Mike Hosking she's never taken anything for granted – the party worked really hard, and she feels it's an absolute honour and privilege to represent the people of her home and community. 

The left bloc is currently sitting behind the right, but Swarbrick says there are a number of different variables they'll have to pay attention to as things get washed up and they get a clearer picture of the full totals. 

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Over 40 percent of the vote has been counted, and the right bloc has a narrow lead.

Labour leads on 29.7 percent, while National is on 29.4.

ACT is on 10.6 percent, New Zealand First is on 9.4 - while the Greens have 14 percent, Te Pati Māori holds five electorate seats and Opportunity is sitting on 5.47 percent.

National's Mark Mitchell says he knew the election was going to be close, and these numbers reflect it. 

"It is close, and we've been saying all along throughout the whole campaign that it was going to be close and that is how it's playing out right now."

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Opportunity is tracking well to enter Parliament for the first time. 

Its party vote has held steady on about 5.4% for more than an hour. 

Leader Qiulae Wong told Mike Hosking she's feeling excited 

She says all options remain on the table, but she'd pick up the phone to whatever party ends up with the most seats. 

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