---
title: "New Zealand Counts Its Ballots by Hand, and the Count Finds No Majority"
description: "National and Labour sit near 29 percent each, and Opportunity, a party that has never held a seat, may now decide who governs"
author: "Jan Sokol"
published: 2026-11-07T06:20:27Z
modified: 2026-11-07T09:56:38Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/new-zealand-counts-its-ballots-by-hand-and-the-count-finds-n-3b9b57
language: en
tags: ["politics", "elections", "new-zealand", "world"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# New Zealand Counts Its Ballots by Hand, and the Count Finds No Majority

*National and Labour sit near 29 percent each, and Opportunity, a party that has never held a seat, may now decide who governs*

By Jan Sokol · November 7, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/new-zealand-counts-its-ballots-by-hand-and-the-count-finds-n-3b9b57

## In brief

- Early results put National on 31.19% and Labour on 28.35% in New Zealand’s general election, with neither able to govern alone
- With 81.8% counted, ABC reported National on 29.4% and Labour on 29.06%
- Projections gave the National-ACT-NZ First bloc a slim majority, reported at between one and three seats as the count went on
- The Electoral Commission said the Opportunity Party will pass the 5% threshold. Luxon ruled out a deal with it, while Hipkins is open to one
- The final result, including overseas votes, is expected by November 27, and there is no deadline for forming a government

New Zealand still counts its votes the old way. No machine reads the ballots. People do, by hand, one paper after another, once the polling stations close at 7pm. On Saturday they had opened at 9am, when it was still Friday evening in Greenwich. When the first figures came in after dark, they mostly told the country what it lacked, which was a winner.

[Al Jazeera reported](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/7/governing-party-leads-in-new-zealands-knife-edge-vote-early-results) that in the early count the governing centre-right National Party of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon had 31.19 percent of the party vote. The centre-left Labour Party of Chris Hipkins was close behind on 28.35 percent. Neither looked able to govern alone.

As the night went on the gap closed. With 81.8 percent of the vote counted, [the ABC’s live coverage](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-11-07/nz-election-2026-live-blog/107355448) had National on 29.4 percent and Labour on 29.06. The country’s two great parties were separated by about a third of a percentage point, and each had won less than a third of the vote.

![Two tall stacks of blank paper sit on blue and red mats while two hands steady the left stack and hold a sheet between them.](https://rews.cc/img/9804a1fa92557c8429db0a812c33ec88758bcc75.webp)

## The arithmetic of the smaller parties

New Zealanders vote every three years, and they do not vote for a prime minister. Each voter casts two votes under the mixed-member proportional system: one for a local electorate candidate and one for a party. Electorate winners take their seats in a parliament that usually has 120 members. The other seats go to candidates high on each party’s list, in line with its share of the national party vote. A big party’s size does not make it king under this system. The kings are made by whoever sits beside it.

Early in the evening, according to an [Associated Press report](https://www.click2houston.com/news/2026/11/06/early-count-in-new-zealands-election-suggests-result-too-close-to-call/), Electoral Commission figures gave Luxon’s three-party coalition a majority of only one seat. The AP also found minor parties on both left and right winning more seats than at the 2023 election, the one that brought Luxon to power. Later projections reported by the ABC put the bloc of National, ACT and New Zealand First on 68 of 131 seats, which the broadcaster called “a majority of three.” New Zealand First was polling about 9.7 percent, up from 6.08 percent in 2023. The Greens were on 13.5 percent and ACT on 11.0 in the same projection.

A majority of one, then a majority of three. On numbers like these a government can be made one evening and lost the next week.

![A giant ornate dark wooden armchair balances one leg on a tiny green chair against an orange background.](https://rews.cc/img/b0d9978fdf656c5c71e4c91656e53f3f7c37bad1.webp)

## The newcomers at the door

The Electoral Commission said on Saturday that the centrist Opportunity Party would pass the 5 percent threshold for entering parliament. It has never held a seat. In the projection carried by the ABC it had 5.8 percent of the vote and seven seats. Its central idea is a land tax, with the money going to a universal basic income of $NZ370 ($297) a week.

“It is looking very likely that after a decade, the Opportunity party is going to make history tonight,” its leader, Qiulae Wong, said. “You guys have voted for unity over division.”

Luxon had ruled out any deal with Opportunity, saying its tax plans would harm the country. The ABC noted that “few political observers take that promise seriously.” Asked whether National should keep ruling the party out, the National MP Mark Mitchell said: “Too early to say.” Hipkins has said he is willing to work with Opportunity, though he would not back the new tax. Wong left the door to the right open. Talks with National, she said, “would entirely depend on whether they meet our bottom lines.”

A reflection, not a fact: an election promise about whom a leader will never govern with tends to last until the counting is done, and then the counting decides it.

![A turquoise wooden wedge props open a weathered black door, with golden light shining through the gap against a textured orange background.](https://rews.cc/img/f0982e4aef2b8ea4ce63d234a1a102be7d667481.webp)

## What the voters were offered

National campaigned on getting the budget back to surplus through fiscal discipline while expanding the national pension scheme. Labour promised cheaper healthcare and cheaper transport. According to the AP, a struggling economy dominated the campaign, along with voters’ disillusionment with both big contenders. Luxon also went into the vote after an unusual year in which he faced two separate confidence votes among his own lawmakers.

The two leaders looked safe in their own seats. On [RNZ’s electorate count](https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/election-2026-results/electorates), with 82.1 percent counted in Botany, Luxon led by 12,498 votes. In Remutaka, with 89.6 percent counted, Hipkins led by 13,999.

## The long wait

The Electoral Commission aimed to publish preliminary results from 95 percent of polling stations by the end of election night. Those figures leave out special votes and can change after recounts and checks. The final result, which will include ballots cast by New Zealanders abroad, is expected by November 27. No law says by when a government must be formed after that.

So the country waits. Its parties will bargain, and the hand count goes on. Asked on election night what she expected, Amanda Luxon, the prime minister’s wife, would not guess. “I think it’s a bit silly to anticipate anything,” she said.