Smaller parties loom as New Zealand braces for knife edge election: what voters need to know

How the voting system works

The parliament has 120 seats, and a majority usually requires 61. The article also says parliament could grow to 122 seats, which would raise the majority threshold to 62; elsewhere, it describes parliament as having 123 seats.

A close contest for power

Recent polls show National and Labour neck and neck, with no clear winner. Because parliamentary seats closely follow the party vote, a small number of seats could decide which party leads the next government.

Since the MMP system began in 1996, every government has been a coalition headed by National or Labour, except in 2020. That year, Labour, led by then-Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, won a large victory and governed alone.

In 2017, National won 56 seats to Labour’s 46 but could not form a majority. Labour took power through a coalition with New Zealand First, with support from the Greens.

Smaller parties in focus

Opportunity is a potential kingmaker if Labour needs its seats to govern. It must win 5 percent of the party vote or an electorate to gain representation, and it has never won a parliamentary seat.

Founded by economist Gareth Morgan in 2016, Opportunity received 2.6 percent of the vote at its peak in 2017. If it helps Labour form a government, it would take on that role for the first time.

Te Pati Maori has also helped major parties govern, supporting National-led governments after the 2008, 2011 and 2014 elections. ACT, led by David Seymour, describes itself as classical liberal and right-libertarian, and holds 11 of parliament’s 123 seats, according to the article.