WELLINGTON — New Zealanders have finished voting in a general election that could leave the country waiting weeks for a government. Polls closed at 7 p.m. (0600 GMT) on Saturday, November 7, Reuters reported, and the Electoral Commission began releasing preliminary numbers shortly afterwards, expecting to report results from 50 percent of voting places by 10 p.m.

Source: Reuters, Nov 7, 2026

More than 2,300 voting places were open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on election day, the Electoral Commission said. Advance voting had been open since October 26, and more than 1.6 million people — 1,666,908 by the end of Thursday — had already voted before election day, surpassing the total number of advance voters in the 2023 election.

Source: NZ Electoral Commission via Marlborough Now

A race the final polls could not separate

This is the count that follows the earlier development Awaaz Punjab reported on November 5: the final polls pointed to a cliffhanger, with the centrist Opportunity Party in a possible kingmaker position. The last 1News-Verian poll put National at 29.5 percent and Labour at 28.8 percent, with the Greens at 16.4 percent, ACT at 10.0 percent, New Zealand First at 8.4 percent, the Opportunity Party at 6.2 percent and Te Pati Maori at 0.4 percent. A separate final poll for The Post by Freshwater Strategy put Labour ahead, at 30.7 percent to National's 26.4 percent — the two surveys disagreed on who was in front, which is itself a measure of how close the race is.

Read the earlier report on the final polls and the kingmaker scenario. New Zealand election cliffhanger: final polls

The campaign was dominated by the economy and the cost of living, Reuters reported, after a term in which unemployment and household prices shaped the contest between Luxon's centre-right National-led government and Hipkins' centre-left Labour Party. New Zealand elects its 120-seat Parliament under a mixed-member proportional system, so governments are usually formed through coalitions rather than by one party alone — 61 seats are needed to govern.

Strict election-day rules applied until polls closed: from midnight, no campaigning or election advertising was allowed anywhere in the country, and signs had to be taken down, the Electoral Commission's timetable states.

What happens next is a count, then — on these numbers — almost certainly a negotiation. The Commission aims to publish most preliminary results on election night, but if neither the National-ACT-New Zealand First bloc nor a Labour-led grouping reaches 61, coalition talks will follow, and the final shape of Parliament may not be confirmed until the official results on November 27. Awaaz Punjab will report the preliminary outcome as the Commission's count settles.