WorldPosted at: Nov 8 2026 7:43PM


New Zealand elections end in hung parliament amid influence of smaller parties

Auckland, Nov 8 (UNI) New Zealand faces weeks of political negotiations after a closely contested general election produced no decisive winner, with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon claiming a mandate to form the next government despite uncertainty over the final parliamentary balance.
Preliminary results show Luxon's National Party winning 42 seats, the largest share of any party, ahead of the opposition Labour Party, which secured 36. However, with nearly 400,000 special votes yet to be counted, the possibility of a shift in the balance of power remains.
Luxon's right-wing coalition partners, the populist NZ First and libertarian ACT, won 12 and 13 seats respectively, potentially giving the three parties a combined 67 seats in the expanded parliament and a narrow majority.
"New Zealanders have given us the biggest seats in parliament, 42 seats as it stands today, and a pathway to form a government," Luxon told reporters on Sunday.
"There's no doubt about it. We've got a mandate."
He argued that National had performed well despite economic difficulties linked to the war in the Middle East and the resulting global fuel price shock.
"What we achieved, I think, was pretty good," he said.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins, meanwhile, faces a more difficult route to power. His potential left-wing grouping includes the Greens, which won 16 seats, and Te Pāti Māori, which secured five.
Hipkins joked that although the country had spoken, "it may take us a little bit longer to figure out exactly what it is that you've said".
Luxon said he did not expect to need the support of the centrist Opportunity Party, which secured seven seats in its first election victory, but indicated he was willing to work with its leader, Qiulae Wong, on areas of common ground.
"We can work with our current coalition partners to form the government," he said, adding that there was a need for deeper cross-party collaboration.
The Opportunity Party's performance has made it a potential kingmaker if the final results prevent either major political bloc from securing a workable majority. It won about 6% of the party vote, comfortably crossing the 5% threshold required to enter parliament.
Luxon had previously ruled out talks with Wong, but the closeness of the election could increase pressure on him to reconsider.
The final count, including special votes cast overseas and by voters outside their registered electorates, is due on November 27. Negotiations to form a government cannot begin formally until the results are confirmed.
Special votes, which account for nearly 400,000 ballots this year, have historically favoured left-wing parties. In the 2023 election, Te Pāti Māori gained two additional seats and the Greens one after the final count, while National lost two.
With the current result so closely contested, even one or two changes could affect the balance between the competing blocs.
The election has also produced the prospect of the largest parliament in New Zealand's history because of the mixed-member proportional representation (MMP) system. Parliament normally has 120 seats, but the preliminary results indicate it could expand by 10 or 11 additional seats through a mechanism known as an overhang.
Under MMP, voters cast two ballots: one for their preferred political party and another for an individual candidate in their local electorate. The 71 electorate seats are allocated according to local contests, while 49 list seats are distributed to ensure that each party's overall representation broadly reflects its share of the party vote.
An overhang occurs when a party wins more electorate seats than its proportional share of the vote would normally entitle it to. Parliament expands to accommodate those additional lawmakers rather than removing seats from other parties.
Both National and Te Pāti Māori have secured a greater share of electorate victories than their party-vote proportions would ordinarily allow, creating the possibility of a substantially enlarged legislature.
The election also marked the first time political groups openly encouraged voters to split their ballots strategically to produce an overhang. Te Pāti Māori urged supporters to back its candidates in Māori electorates, helping it secure five of the seven seats, while right-wing groups encouraged voters to support National candidates locally but give their party votes to ACT or NZ First.
National had warned against the strategy, but the results suggest the appeals had an impact.
Critics argue that such tactical voting undermines the spirit of MMP, which New Zealand adopted in 1996 following concerns that the previous first-past-the-post system produced disproportionate election outcomes. Two reviews since 2012 have proposed abolishing the overhang mechanism, but successive governments have not acted on the recommendations.
Luxon will remain at the head of a caretaker government until the final results are announced. He urged the country to take a break from politics during the coming weeks.
"I think everyone's over politics, so let's all just have a bit of a break for the next three weeks," he said.
The final parliamentary balance could take until December to settle, leaving the country facing an extended period of uncertainty over the formation of its next government.
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