New Zealand waits on special votes as leaders delay talks

As of 9:58 p.m. ET, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026

New Zealanders may wait more than two weeks to learn who will govern them after Saturday's general election, with nearly 400,000 special votes still to be counted and party leaders holding off on formal coalition talks until the final tally is in.

Official results are expected on Friday, Nov. 27, RNZ reported. Its preliminary count, released early Sunday local time, showed Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's National Party and Chris Hipkins' opposition Labour Party neck-and-neck on party vote share, the BBC reported, calling it the tightest vote the country has seen in years.

Why the special votes matter

The commission estimates 399,365 special votes, RNZ reported, about 14% of all votes cast, according to the BBC. They include ballots from people who voted outside their electorate, voters who could not reach a polling place, such as hospital patients, people on the unpublished roll and New Zealanders overseas.

Special votes can change the result in close electorate races and shift each party's share of the party vote, which decides how many seats parties get under New Zealand's proportional system, RNZ said. RNZ counted six electorates where the election-night margin was under 1,000 votes.

Special votes have tended to lean left, political scientist Claire Timperley told the BBC, because those voters tend to be younger and more likely to be renters. RNZ noted that this year's specials will not include people who enrolled on or just before election day, because new rules required enrolment three weeks before the vote.

After official results are released, a candidate or party secretary can request a recount within three days, RNZ said. MPs are to be formally confirmed by Dec. 3.

Talks on hold

Party leaders have said they will wait for the final results before formal coalition discussions, the BBC reported.

The centrist Opportunity Party, whose incoming lawmakers began induction at Parliament on Monday local time, has said it is open to working with either major party. Its leader, Qiulae Wong, said Monday that any partner would "really need to be comfortable with the overall direction the government is going in." She said Hipkins and Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick had called to congratulate her but had not discussed coalitions.

Luxon, who had previously ruled out working with Opportunity, met Wong for about an hour in his office on Monday evening, RNZ reported. "We had a very positive, very constructive conversation," Luxon told reporters on Tuesday local time, according to RNZ, adding that formal negotiations would begin once the special votes were counted.