NZ Election 2026: Live results, commentary and updates from campaign events around the country

Kia ora and welcome to the interest.co.nz live blog of the 55th New Zealand General Election! We'll have live results, commentary and updates from campaign events around the country.

Anna Whyte and Ella Somers are in Auckland and reporting from National, ACT and Opportunity’s election events, while Mandy Te is covering Labour’s election event in Wellington. 

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7.07pm First results are in! 

A quick result drop, please note this is only 0.8% of the vote. 

Labour is on 30.6%, 29.9% for National, Greens at 13%, ACT on 10.7%, NZF at 8.8% and Opportunity on 5.8%. 

Preliminary results 7.07pm

Let's break this down even further to advanced votes (only 7.8% of which have been counted). National looked to be on 35 electorate seats and 3 list seats, Labout with 19 electorate seats and 17 list, Greens with 3 electorate seats and 12 list seats. ACT were on 13 list seats, NZ First on 11 list seats, Opportunity on 7 seats and TPM on electorate seats. 

7pm

And we're go! Your interest.co.nz team are on the ground - Anna Whyte comes to you from the National Party event (fresh off the National Party bus which took leader Christopher Luxon up the North Island). Media are setting up and supporters are shortly expected to start streaming in once the doors open. 

Anna Whyte at the National Party election event.

Ella Somers comes to you from Opportunity's event at Auckland's Eden Park. Inside the Opportunity venue, teal and white balloons are strung up around the room and there are teal fairy lights on the tables, and Opportunity supporters are decked out in teal attire. 

Auckland has been beleaguered with storms since Friday, but the weather had started to clear by the time Interest arrived at Eden Park this evening, with a big rainbow splashed across the stadium’s pitch. 

Opportunity's election night set up.

Mandy Te is at Labour's event in Wellington. The Labour Party is spending its election night at the Upper Hutt Cosmopolitan Club. 

Outside of the room where Labour is, it feels like a normal Saturday night - people are having dinner, chatting to friends over drinks and a band is setting up. 

In Labour's head quarters of the Cossie Club, tables are adorned with red balloons and the room has signs with the party’s 2026 campaign slogan, Better Starts Now.

The event hasn’t fully kicked off yet but the journalists are ready to go, supporters are starting to trickle in and Labour staff are chatting amongst themselves, nervously waiting for the results. But there's also a sense of relief amongst everyone that the night is finally here.
 

Mandy Te at Labour Party's election night set up in Wellington.

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Before Election Day, 1.66 million advance votes were cast. This was up from the 1.24 million advance votes cast in the 2023 election but below the 1.97 million advance votes cast in 2020.

Tonight, the Electoral Commission aims to have results from 50% of polling places by 10pm and 95% by 11:30pm, but these are targets, not guarantees.

We're in it for the long haul!