2026 New Zealand general election (Darthehr)

The 2026 New Zealand general election was held on 12 December 2026 to determine the composition of the 55th Parliament of New Zealand. Voters elected 122 members to the House of Representatives under the mixed-member proportional (MMP) voting system, with 72 members elected from single member electorates and the remaining members elected from closed party lists. Two overhang seats were added due to Te Pāti Māori winning five electorate seats when the party vote only entitled them to three seats.
The governing National Party, led by incumbent Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, won the election against the opposing Labour Party, led by Chris Hipkins. The National Party won a slightly greater vote share than they did the previous year. 
==Background==
The previous election resulted in a victory for the National Party and the formation of New Zealand's first three-way coalition government between National, ACT, and New Zealand First for the 54th Parliament. 
Halfway through his term as Deputy Prime Minister, ACT leader David Seymour suffered a mental breakdown on the 1st of March, 2026, due to the stresses of the job. He abruptly resigned shortly after, and was replaced by ACT deputy leader Brooke Van Velden. 
==Election date and schedule==
The election was decided to be held on the 12th of December 2026.
==Parties and candidates==
Political parties registered with the Electoral Commission can contest the general election as a party. Parties must have at least 500 financial members, an auditor, and an appropriate party name. A registered party must submit a party list to contest the party vote. Unregistered parties and independents can contest the electorate vote only.
Since the 2023 election, five parties had been deregistered: DemocracyNZ on 15 June 2024, Legalise Cannabis on 6 July 2024, Women's Rights on 27 October 2024, New Conservative on 7 February 2026, NewZeal on 8 April 2026, and New Nation on 3 August 2026.
Party	Party 	Leader(s) 	Founded	Ideology 	2023 election result	2023 election result	Seats before election
Party	Party 	Leader(s) 	Founded	Ideology 	% party vote 	seats 	Seats before election
 	National 	Christopher Luxon 	1936 	Conservatism 	38.08% 	48 	48
 	Labour 	Chris Hipkins 	1916 	Social Democracy 	26.92% 	34 	34
 	Green 	Marama Davidson / Chlöe Swarbrick 	1990 	Green politics, social democracy 	11.61% 	15 	15
 	ACT 	Brooke van Velden 	1994 	Classical liberalism, conservatism 	8.64% 	11 	11
 	NZ First 	Winston Peters 	1993 	Nationalism, populism, social conservatism	6.09% 	8 	8
 	Te Pāti Māori 	Rawiri Waititi / Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke	2004 	Maori rights, tino rangatiratanga 	3.08% 	6 	6
 	Opportunities 	Natalia Albert 	2016 	Radical centrism, environmentalism 	2.22% 	0 	0
 	New Zealand Loyal 	Liz Gunn 	2023 	Conspiracism 	1.21% 	0 	0
 	Freedoms NZ 	Brian Tamaki / Sue Gray 	2022 	Anti-establishment, big tent, conspiracism	0.34% 	0 	0
 	Animal Justice 	Anna Rippon / Robert McNeil 	2023 	Animal rights 	0.18% 	0 	0
 	Leighton Baker Party	Leighton Baker 	2023 	 	0.07% 	0 	0
 	Equal Justice 	Riley Leone 	2026 	Social justice, liberalism 	 	 	
 	Revival 	Walter Bone 	2026 	Nationalism, communitarianism 	 	 	
===MPs not standing for re-election===
Name 	Party	Party 	Electorate/List 	Term in office 	Date announced
Paul Goldsmith 	 	National 	List 	2011-2026 	20 July 2025
David Parker 	 	Labour 	List 	2002-2026 	2 February 2026
Chris Penk 	 	National 	Kaipara ki Mahurangi	2017-2026 	24 February 2026
David Seymour 	 	ACT 	Epsom 	2014-2026 	2 March 2026
Peeni Henare 	 	Labour 	List 	2014-2026 	6 March 2026
Ayesha Verrall 	 	Labour 	List 	2020-2026 	2 April 2026
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer	 	Te Pāti Māori	Te Tai Hauāuru 	2020-2026 	7 April 2026
Melissa Lee 	 	National 	List 	2008-2026 	23 April 2026
Barbara Edmonds 	 	Labour 	Mana 	2020-2026 	19 May 2026
Suze Redmayne 	 	National 	Rangitīkei 	2023-2026 	17 June 2026
Dana Kirkpatrick 	 	National 	East Coast 	2023-2026 	7 July 2026
Kieran McAnulty 	 	Labour 	List 	2017-2026 	31 July 2026
Lemauga Lydia Sosene 	 	Labour 	Māngere 	2022-2026 	15 August 2026
Helen White 	 	Labour 	Mount Albert 	2020-2026 	25 August 2026
Paulo Garcia 	 	National 	New Lynn 	2019-2020, 2023-2026	29 August 2026
Grant McCallum 	 	National 	Northland 	2023-2026 	24 September 2026
==Opinion Polls==
Several polling firms conducted opinion polls during the term of the 54th New Zealand Parliament leading up to the 2026 general election.
===Seat Projections===
Source 	Seats in parliament	Seats in parliament	Seats in parliament	Seats in parliament	Seats in parliament	Seats in parliament	Seats in parliament	Likely government formation(s)
Source 	NAT 	LAB 	GRN 	ACT 	TPM 	NZF 	Total 	Likely government formation(s)
2026 election result 12 December 2026	51 	39 	14 	13 	5** 	0 	122 	National-ACT (64)
1 News December 2026 poll 	53 	34 	19 	11 	5** 	0 	122 	National-ACT (64)
Newshub 16-23 Nov 2026 poll 	59 	37 	14 	8 	4** 	0 	122 	National-ACT (67)
Guardian Essential 5-11 Nov 2026 poll	49 	39 	21 	10 	6***** 	0 	125 	Labour-Green-Māori (66)
Roy Morgan 23-25 Oct 2026 poll 	50 	44 	16 	8 	5*** 	0 	123 	Labour-Green-Māori (65)
Taxpayer's Union 13-14 Oct 2026 poll 	45 	47 	13 	13 	5*** 	0 	123 	Labour-Green-Māori (65)
Talbot Mills 20-25 Sep 2026 poll 	49 	45 	14 	10 	5*** 	0 	123 	Labour-Green-Māori (64)
The Post 1-5 Sep 2026 poll 	51 	42 	13 	11 	5** 	0 	122 	National-ACT (62)
* indicates an overhang seat
==Voting==
Overseas voting for the 2026 New Zealand general election opened on 1 November, allowing overseas voters to cast their ballots until 7:00 pm on 12 December. 80 voting locations were set up worldwide, including 12 in Australia, five in China, four in the United States, and one in the United Kingdom. Overseas voters had the option to download their voting papers from vote.nz and upload their completed forms onto the same website. By 1 November, the Electoral Commission confirmed that 82,000 voters had overseas addresses.
Advance voting commenced on 25 November 2026, with 1,455,967 advance votes cast by 10 December. This figure showed a moderate increase from the 2023 general election, where 1,376,366 advance votes were cast.
On 1 December, it was announced that 2,700 polling booths would be set up across New Zealand for the 2026 general election. Out of these, 850 booths opened early for advance voting, but 300 would not be open on polling day. The decision on the opening days and times of individual polling booths was based on factors such as agreements with location owners, availability of staff, and local demand.
Polling booths opened at 9:00 am on the 12th of December 2026 and closed at 7:00 pm. Throughout the day, there were reports of minor issues, such as voters having to cast special votes due to their names not appearing on the electoral roll at certain polling stations. Despite these challenges, the Electoral Commission managed to address the problems promptly, ensuring that voting proceeded smoothly.
==Results==
Party	Party 	Party Vote	Party Vote 	Party Vote	Party Vote	Electorate Vote Sum	Electorate Vote Sum	Electorate Vote Sum	Electorate Vote Sum	Total seats	+/-
Party	Party 	Votes 	Of total (%)	Change 	Seats 	Votes 	Of total (%) 	Change 	Seats 	Total seats	+/-
 	National 	1,234,700 	42.08% 	4.00 	13 	1,061,187 	36.17% 	7.30 	38 	51 	3
 	Labour 	798,975 	27.23% 	0.31 	14 	800,711 	27.29% 	3.92 	25 	39 	5
 	Green 	435,725 	14.85% 	3.24 	12 	396,049 	13.50% 	5.24 	2 	14 	1
 	ACT 	254,099 	8.66% 	0.02 	11 	368,053 	12.54% 	6.79 	2 	13 	2
 	Māori 	61,618 	2.10% 	0.98 	0 	123,472 	4.21% 	0.32 	5 	5 	1
 	NZ First 	83,624 	2.85% 	3.24 	0 	79,021 	2.69% 	0.11 	0 	0 	8
 	NZ Loyal 	58,097 	1.98% 	0.77 	0 	54,899 	1.87% 	0.69 	0 	0 	
 	Opportunities 	7,335 	0.25% 	1.97 	0 	6,932 	0.24% 	0.78 	0 	0 	
 	Revival 	4,108 	0.14% 	new 	0 	3,882 	0.13% 	new 	0 	0 	
 	Animal Justice 	2,641 	0.09% 	0.09 	0 	2,495 	0.09% 	0.12 	0 	0 	new
 	Leighton Baker Party	2,347 	0.08% 	0.01 	0 	2,218 	0.08% 	0.02 	0 	0 	
 	Equal Justice 	2,054 	0.07% 	new 	0 	1,941 	0.07% 	new 	0 	0 	new
 	Freedoms NZ 	1,467 	0.05% 	0.29 	0 	1,386 	0.05% 	new 	0 	0 	
==Government formation==
Following the release of the election results on the 13th of December, Christopher Luxon began negotiations with Brooke Van Velden to form a coalition government. The following week, the parties announced that they had reached an agreement, and the coalition between National and ACT was formally announced on the 24th. Cabinet positions are announced on the 28th, with ACT leader Brooke Van Velden being appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance. The official swearing-in ceremony was conducted on the 30th, appointing Christopher Luxon as the Prime Minister of New Zealand for his second term. The first Cabinet meeting of the 55th Parliament of New Zealand was held on the 31st of December, 2026.
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