Opportunity makes history, special votes still to count

The Opportunity Party has become the first party to enter New Zealand's Parliament from outside under the MMP electoral system, according to RNZ. MMP, or Mixed Member Proportional, is the voting system New Zealand uses to decide how many seats each party holds.

The party secured about 6% of the party vote, according to the NZ Herald. Preliminary results were released progressively from soon after 7pm on election night. The Electoral Commission's seat allocation calculator, which includes those results, shows a seat figure for Opportunity. Before the election, the party said it was standing to fix politics, build the next economy and restore nature.

Seventeen registered parties contested the election, with 530 candidates. Nearly 3.8 million people enrolled to vote, and voting has now closed, according to the Electoral Commission.

Opportunity leader Qiulae Wong was preparing to become a first-time MP. She was rallying her caucus, the group of the party's MPs, and booking flights to Wellington. At that stage, National, ACT and New Zealand First could govern without Opportunity.

Special votes, which are still to be counted, are expected to take three weeks. They could leave Opportunity holding the balance of power in Parliament. As of 11pm on election night, Wong had not heard from National leader Christopher Luxon or Labour leader Chris Hipkins, according to RNZ.

Luxon had repeatedly ruled out forming a government with Opportunity. In his speech at National's headquarters, he congratulated the party.

Wong said she would stick to her promise to negotiate first with the party with the most seats, which at that stage was National. She said all options were open to Opportunity: a coalition, a confidence and supply agreement (a deal to support a government on key votes), or sitting on the cross benches, outside both the government and opposition blocs.