WELLINGTON, Oct 12 (Reuters) – New Zealand votes in a general election on November 7 with opinion polls pointing to another close contest between the ruling centre-right National-led coalition and opposition parties, the largest of which is the centre-left Labour Party.
Analysts say smaller parties could again determine who forms the next government, as they did after the 2023 election.
Below are the key facts on the parties, and their leaders, who may form the next government.
NATIONAL
Current Prime Minister Luxon, 56, is seeking a second term. First elected to parliament in 2020 as the MP for the Auckland electorate of Botany, Luxon became National leader the following year.
A former chief executive of Air New Zealand, he led National to victory in the 2023 election on a platform of sound economic management.
His leadership has faced unusual turbulence in the past year: Luxon survived two confidence votes by National MPs, in April and August 2026, with the latter triggered by a challenge from then-defence minister Chris Penk, amid weak polling, economic pressure and tensions within his three-party coalition.
The party’s platform this time around also focuses on the economy, with a target of returning to a budget surplus and the expansion of the national KiwiSaver pension scheme.
LABOUR
Chris Hipkins, 48, is seeking to return to New Zealand’s top job as Labour leader, three years after the party’s 2023 defeat.
First elected to parliament in 2008, he became prime minister in January 2023 after Jacinda Ardern resigned, but lost office after an election that October.
Hipkins remained Labour leader in opposition, campaigning on living costs, public services and economic stability.
Labour’s 2026 platform centres on easing living costs through more affordable healthcare and transport, investment in jobs, housing and infrastructure, and a plan to strengthen public services.
NEW ZEALAND FIRST
New Zealand First is led by Winston Peters, who served as deputy prime minister until May 2025, and has led the party through coalitions with both Labour and National governments since the 1990s.
For the 2026 campaign, the party has proposed restricting voting in New Zealand elections to citizens only.
It has also proposed splitting up major electricity companies that both generate and retail power, and breaking up one of the country’s largest supermarket operators into two supermarkets.
Peters has said he wants New Zealand to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, and suggested he’d like to see the central bank return to a dual mandate targeting both inflation and sustainable employment.
ACT NEW ZEALAND
ACT New Zealand describes itself as a classical liberal, right-libertarian party and currently holds 11 of 123 seats in parliament. It is the junior partner in the three-way coalition with National and New Zealand First.
The party is led by David Seymour, who became leader in October 2014 and has served as deputy prime minister since mid-2025.
Ahead of the 2026 election, ACT has proposed a six-point immigration plan including deporting serious offenders no matter how long they have lived in the country, a surcharge on temporary work visas, and a five-year exclusion period for claiming government benefits for new residence-class visa holders.
THE GREEN PARTY
The Green Party is co-led by Chlöe Swarbrick and Marama Davidson. It is a left-leaning environmental party that has supported Labour-led governments in the past.
For the 2026 campaign, the Greens have made cutting living costs, protecting nature and reforming political funding their central themes. They propose a wealth tax and higher taxes on the biggest companies, banks and offshore tech profits, while creating a tax-free threshold on the first NZ$10,000 ($5,614) of income and cutting income tax for most taxpayers.
The party also wants to establish a state-owned power company, Kiwipower, expand home insulation, offer zero-interest loans for household solar and batteries, and provide funding for community-owned renewable projects. The Greens have proposed a publicly owned supermarket chain, KiwiMart, and tougher rules against excessive grocery pricing.
TE PATI MAORI
Te Pati Maori is polling under the 5% needed to return to parliament but will likely win a number of the seven special seats reserved for Maori under New Zealand’s electoral system.
In this campaign, the party’s strategy has centred on boosting the number of voters enrolled on this Maori electoral roll, where it controls six of the seven seats.
It is co-led by Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, who have shared control since October 2020.
Ngarewa-Packer has also said the party is campaigning on housing, health, education, environmental protection and constitutional transformation.
OPPORTUNITY
Opportunity, formerly The Opportunities Party (TOP), was founded in 2016 by economist Gareth Morgan and has never won a seat in parliament, having contested three previous elections and peaked at 2.6% of the vote in 2017.
It is now led by Qiulae Wong, an Auckland businesswoman who was named leader in November 2025, becoming the party’s fifth leader.
Wong has said the party stands for “workable, costed reforms” delivering “real, tangible economic growth” and describes it as neither left- nor right-wing.
Its central 2026 policy is a land value tax, proposed at 1.75% annually on residential land and 0.5% on rural land, which the party says would raise NZ$24 billion a year to fund broader tax changes.
($1 = 1.7813 New Zealand dollars)
(Compiled by Alasdair Pal and Lucy Craymer; editing by Lincoln Feast.)
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