Politics

New Zealand election count begins, with outcome too close to call

Hana SinclairPublished 7m ago3 min readBased on 12 sources
New Zealand election count begins, with outcome too close to call
Image by planet_fox from Pixabay

Vote counting for New Zealand's general election began on 7 November 2026, and the outcome is too close to call, according to Bloomberg.

Election-night results are preliminary. RNZ reported that preliminary results at 8pm indicated a possible overhang of 10 seats.

An overhang is the main reason the number of seats in Parliament can rise above its usual size. New Zealand uses the mixed-member proportional system, known as MMP. Each voter casts a party vote for a party and a separate vote for a local electorate MP. Parliament has a baseline of 120 MPs. An overhang occurs when a party wins more electorate seats than its share of the party vote would entitle it to. Those extra electorate seats are added to Parliament on top of the 120.

Both the National Party and Te Pāti Māori could produce overhang seats, Bloomberg reported. Te Pāti Māori has announced an election strategy focused on the candidate vote, aiming to get more Māori into Parliament, while ceding the party vote to Labour and the Greens.

Final polls before the election showed neither of the two major parties would have enough seats to form a government, The Guardian reported. The centrist minor party Opportunity Party was cast as a potential kingmaker, a party whose support could decide which side forms a government.

Overhangs have occurred five times since MMP was introduced in 1996, after the 2005, 2008, 2011, 2014 and 2023 elections. The 2023 overhangs produced the largest Parliament in New Zealand's history, with 123 seats. Two of the extra seats in that Parliament came from Te Pāti Māori winning electorate seats. One further seat came from a byelection held after the death of an ACT candidate in Port Waikato.

To qualify for seats from the party vote, a party must win at least 5 percent of the party vote or an electorate seat. Those list seats are then divided between qualifying parties using the Sainte-Laguë formula, a method of allocating seats in proportion to each party's share of the vote.

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