Luxon says vote count would have taken up to five weeks without enrolment changes

Christopher Luxon says the vote count could have taken up to five weeks if his government had not changed the enrolment rules.

Speaking to RNZ's Morning Report, Luxon said the count could take four or five weeks if voters kept saying they would not bother enrolling and would instead enrol on the day they cast their vote. Electoral law changes have removed the ability to enrol and vote on the same day. They also require people to enrol before advance voting begins.

The interview came less than two weeks before the final election result is due. Despite the enrolment changes, the final result is still expected to take three weeks in total, the same as at the last election.

Luxon said he had spoken to ACT leader David Seymour, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters and The Opportunity Party leader Qiulae Wong. He said formal negotiations over forming a government would not start until after the final count. He said nearly 400,000 special votes had not yet been accounted for, and that formal talks had to wait so that every vote cast was respected.

Constitutional law expert Graeme Edgeler told RNZ there was nothing preventing negotiations from starting before the final count.

Luxon said the Electoral Commission's independence was important for democracy, but that he struggled to understand why counting takes so long.

Luxon also described suggestions that the National Party is becoming more conservative as "rubbish".