New Zealanders won't know for weeks who won the election as neither side secures clear victory

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealanders will wait for weeks to discover who will lead the country after Saturday’s election failed to deliver a decisive win for the right or the left, leaving fraught negotiations for a wafer-thin governing majority the only apparent path to victory for either side.

The tightest vote in years delivered a stinging rebuke to the major parties which have long dominated New Zealand politics, Christopher Luxon's center-right National party and center-left Labour led by Chris Hipkins, as voters threw more support behind minor parties on the ideological flanks than before. On Saturday's numbers, minor parties would enter negotiations for a governing deal with leverage to extract deeper policy concessions from a weakened National or Labour.

The near-deadlock was partly produced because voters, apparently weary of New Zealand's economic woes and apathetic about both Luxon and Hipkins , chose to propel a new entrant group to Parliament for the first time in years. Opportunity, led by 38-year-old business consultant and political newcomer Qiulae Wong, is unaligned with either bloc and Wong has said she could work with either side to form a government.

Wong's pledges of evidence-based centrism and an end to partisan bickering had on Saturday's results secured seven seats for Opportunity — enough to frustrate both left and right in a simple path to power. It was a staggering ascension for a party that made three failed attempts at Parliament before Wong became leader less than a year ago.

Other winners were harder to identify and on Sunday, “who won the election 2026” was the top trending Google search in New Zealand. So unclear was the result that parties won’t begin negotiations to form a government until final tallies are released on Nov. 27, confirming the exact number of seats they’ve won.

With 2.8 million ballots counted on election night, the conservative incumbent government led by Luxon's National party appeared close to the slimmest possible return to power — by just one seat. However, Luxon didn't claim victory, instead striking a note of cautious optimism that he could negotiate a second term in power.

Speaking to reporters Sunday, Luxon blamed public dissatisfaction on global shocks which have buffeted New Zealand's trade-based economy, noting that other incumbent governments worldwide have faced voters' rancor over living costs.

Yet his opponent Hipkins, who was turfed from office in 2023 largely over discontent about the same economic issues, didn't appear to benefit on Saturday. The left-wing bloc appeared to fall short of a majority but was still hopeful it could triumph — though that seemed a more remote prospect.

Electoral officials were due on Sunday to begin counting nearly 400,000 so-called special votes, including from New Zealanders who live abroad, a process expected to take three weeks.

Those ballots have historically granted an additional seat or two in Parliament to left-wing parties, which could snatch the current razor-thin majority from the right, although such an outcome would likely leave the left struggling to form a majority too. If a government can't be formed, New Zealand could face a fresh vote.

“I think everyone's over politics so let's all have a bit of a break for the next three weeks,” Luxon told reporters on Sunday. He will lead a caretaker government until an outcome is reached.

Luxon suggested that National had a viable path to power and boasted that it had secured more seats in Parliament than any other group. However, Saturday night was bleak for his party.

Several of National's most senior lawmakers would exit politics on results so far, including the ministers of finance and defense, the speaker of parliament, and the attorney general. With the party's traditional governing partners winning increased support, Luxon faces a more strident list of policy demands to secure their backing.

Libertarian ACT won 13 seats and populist New Zealand First won 12. Both are led by canny veteran politicians, and detractors of Luxon, a former business executive who entered politics in 2020, said his dealings with them in the three years since he took office had highlighted his political inexperience.

New Zealanders don't vote for prime ministers. Instead they cast two votes, one for their preferred party and another for the candidate they want as their local representative.

The country has one house of Parliament and no states, so the central government holds ultimate sway over New Zealand's direction. Governments in the South Pacific nation of 5.6 million people are elected every three years.

National won just 29.21% of the preferred party vote as of Sunday, a collapse of its previous result, and secured its 42 seats entirely by winning local constituency races. Luxon, who unusually faced two separate confidence votes among his own lawmakers this year, further slumped in popularity as leader close to election day.

However, Labour also won just 29.36% of the party vote, a result that appeared to suggest a second election defeat for career politician Hipkins. Despite winning about the same party vote percentage as National, Labour has secured only 36 seats on numbers so far because they won fewer local races.

Minor parties on the left saw bolstered support. The environmentally-focused Greens won 16 seats and Indigenous rights group Te Pāti Māori secured five.

The total number of seats in New Zealand's Parliament changes due to quirks in how seat allocations are calculated. There would currently be 131 lawmakers elected, with 66 seats required for a majority.

Luxon's conservative bloc would currently hold 67, a razor-thin margin likely to discomfit a leader managing a three-way government with two emboldened minor parties. However, the left bloc held only 57 seats before the historically left-leaning special votes were counted.

Even if the final tally boosted the left bloc's seats slightly, Hipkins would apparently need support from newcomer Wong to govern.

Before the election, Luxon repeatedly ruled out negotiating with Wong. He sidestepped questions on Sunday about whether his vanishingly slim lead had changed his mind.