New Zealanders are being asked to choose between prime minister Bill English’s National party, which has had nine years at the tiller; Jacinda Ardern, just seven weeks into her leadership of a revitalised Labour party; the Greens, or one of the plethora of smaller parties, which include New Zealand First, the Opportunities party, the Maori party, Act and the New Zealand Outdoors party. More than 1.2 million people cast an early vote this year, compared with 717, 579 in 2014.. On Friday long lines were reported at polling booths around the country in what the electoral commission has just confirmed was the biggest day of advance voting on record with 253, 473 casting their vote. But the catapulting of Jacinda Ardern into the Labour leadership on 1 August reinvigorated what had looked to be a predictable stroll for the National party to a fourth term in government. The centre-right governing party, led by 55-year-old Bill English, had been in power for almost a decade. "Special votes," which includes ballots from New Zealanders overseas and those who vote outside their home constituencies, will only be released on October 7. These could have a considerable impact on the outcome, given New Zealand's large diaspora, and accounted for around 12 percent of the vote in the 2014 election. The ruling National Party and opposition Labour Party had been neck-and-neck in opinion polls and will likely have to rely on minor parties to form a coalition in New Zealand's German-style proportional representation voting system. This means that minor parties often play an influential role in determining which major party governs.
Voters in New Zealand go to the polls, electing all members of their House of Representatives and the consequent Prime Minister.