Voting opened in New Zealand on Monday for the November 7 general election, with 207 voting places open on day one and no clear frontrunner in recent polling.
Voting opened in New Zealand on Monday for the November 7 general election, with ballot boxes available for nearly two weeks at shopping centres, transport hubs and community halls ahead of a race pollsters cannot call.
The Electoral Commission said 207 voting places were open on Monday, rising to more than 2,300 on election day, while overseas voting opened earlier, on October 21. The start of voting came just hours after enrolment closed at midnight on Sunday.
Unlike in previous elections, voters can no longer enrol or update their details during the voting period, so anyone not enrolled by the cutoff cannot cast a vote in this election. The Electoral Commission said 3,729,667 people were enrolled as of October 21, already above the final 2023 total of 3,688,292.
Recent polling points in different directions. A 1News-Verian poll published on October 20 put the ruling centre-right National Party at 32 percent and opposition Labour at 27 percent, while a Post/Freshwater Strategy poll published a day earlier had Labour narrowly ahead, 28.7 percent to 27.6 percent. In both surveys the smaller Opportunity party polled around or above the 5 percent threshold needed to enter parliament, making it a potential kingmaker under New Zealand's mixed-member proportional system, where coalition deals are often needed to form a government.
The stakes turn on turnout and the small parties. With no bloc holding a clear lead, the shape of the next government may depend on which minor parties clear the threshold and on whether the earlier enrolment cutoff holds down participation among harder-to-reach voters, a concern critics and the Human Rights Commission have both raised. Official results are scheduled to be declared on November 27.
People Sentiments Public Mood: Neutral
- Critics say the earlier enrolment cutoff could deter participation, particularly among harder-to-reach groups
- New Zealand Human Rights Commission said last year that ending election-day enrolment would disproportionately affect underrepresented groups