| Election Name: | Next New Zealand general election |
| Country: | New Zealand |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Ongoing: | yes |
| Previous Election: | 2023 New Zealand general election |
| Previous Year: | 2023 |
| Outgoing Members: | 54th New Zealand Parliament |
| Seats For Election: | All 120 seats (plus any overhang) in the House of Representatives 61 seats needed for a majority |
| Election Date: | No later than 19 December 2026 |
| Opinion Polls: | Opinion polling for the next New Zealand general election |
| Leader1: | Christopher Luxon |
| Party1: | New Zealand National Party |
| Leader Since1: | 30 November 2021 |
| Leaders Seat1: | Botany |
| Last Election1: | 48 seats, 38.06% |
| Seats Before1: | 49 |
| Seats Needed1: | 12 |
| Leader2: | Chris Hipkins |
| Leader Since2: | 22 January 2023 |
| Party2: | New Zealand Labour Party |
| Leaders Seat2: | Remutaka |
| Last Election2: | 34 seats, 26.91% |
| Seats Before2: | 34 |
| Seats Needed2: | 27 |
| Leader3: | Marama Davidson Chlöe Swarbrick |
| Leader Since3: | 8 April 2018 10 March 2024 |
| Party3: | Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand |
| Leaders Seat3: | List Auckland Central |
| Last Election3: | 15 seats, 11.06% |
| Seats Before3: | 14 |
| Seats Needed3: | 47 |
| Leader4: | David Seymour |
| Leader Since4: | 4 October 2014 |
| Party4: | ACT New Zealand |
| Leaders Seat4: | Epsom |
| Last Election4: | 11 seats, 8.64% |
| Seats Before4: | 11 |
| Seats Needed4: | 50 |
| Leader5: | Winston Peters |
| Leader Since5: | 18 July 1993 |
| Party5: | New Zealand First |
| Leaders Seat5: | List |
| Last Election5: | 8 seats, 6.08% |
| Seats Before5: | 8 |
| Seats Needed5: | 53 |
| Leader6: | Debbie Ngarewa-Packer Rawiri Waititi |
| Leader Since6: | 15 April 2020 28 October 2020 |
| Party6: | Te Pāti Māori |
| Leaders Seat6: | Te Tai Hauāuru Waiariki |
| Last Election6: | 6 seats, 3.08% |
| Seats Before6: | 6 |
| Seats Needed6: | 55 |
| Prime Minister | |
| Before Election: | Christopher Luxon |
| Before Party: | New Zealand National Party |
The next New Zealand general election will be held after the current 54th New Zealand Parliament is dissolved or expires. The current Parliament was elected on Saturday, 14 October 2023. The last possible date for the election to be held is Saturday, 19 December 2026.
Voters will elect 120 members to the House of Representatives under New Zealand's mixed-member proportional (MMP) voting system, a proportional representation system in which 72 members are elected from single-member electorates and 48 members are elected from closed party lists.
After the previous election, the centre-right National Party, led by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, formed a coalition government with the ACT and New Zealand First parties. The main opponent to the National-ACT-NZ First government is the centre-left Labour Party, led by former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins. Other opposition parties include the left-wing Green Party and the indigenous rights-based Te Pāti Māori.
See main article: Electoral system of New Zealand.
New Zealand uses the mixed-member proportional (MMP) voting system to elect the House of Representatives. Each voter gets two votes, one for a political party (the party vote) and one for a local candidate (the electorate vote). Political parties which meet the threshold (5% of the party vote or one electorate seat) receive seats in the House in proportion to the percentage of the party vote they receive. 72 of the 120 seats are filled by the MPs elected from the electorates, with the winner in each electorate determined by the first past the post method (i.e. most votes wins). The remaining 48 seats are filled by candidates from each party's closed party list. If a party wins more electorates than seats it is entitled to under the party vote, an overhang results; in this case, the House will add extra seats to cover the overhang.
The political party or party bloc with the majority of the seats in the House forms the Government. Since the introduction of MMP in 1996, a party has only won an outright majority of seats once, when the Labour Party won 65 out of 120 seats in 2020. As a result, parties typically negotiate with other parties to form a coalition government or a minority government.
Electorate boundaries for the next election are due to be redrawn following the 2023 census and the Electoral (Māori Electoral Option) Legislation Act, which allows Māori to switch between the General Roll and Māori Roll at any time and as often as they like excluding during certain pre-election periods. This means that unless a snap election is called before the boundary review, the next general election will be the first to use boundaries based on the 2023 census.[1] [2]
The number of South Island general electorates is fixed at 16,[3] with the number of North Island general electorates and Māori electorates increasing or decreasing in proportion. For the 2020 and 2023 elections, there were 49 North Island general electorates and seven Māori electorates.
Unless an early election is called or the election date is set to circumvent holding a by-election, a general election is held every three years. The last election was held on Saturday, 14 October 2023.[4]
The Governor General must issue a writs for an election within seven days of the expiration or dissolution of the current Parliament.[5] Under section 17 of the Constitution Act 1986, Parliament expires three years "from the day fixed for the return of the writs issued for the last preceding general election of members of the House of Representatives, and no longer." The writs for the 2023 election were returned on 9 November 2023. As a result, the 54th Parliament will expire, if not dissolved earlier, on Monday, 9 November 2026. Consequently, the last day for issuance of writs of election is 16 November 2026. The writs must be returned within 50 days of their issuance (save for any judicial recount or death of a candidate), which will be Tuesday, 5 January 2027.[6] Because polling day must be a Saturday[6] and two weeks is generally required for the counting of special votes, the last possible date for the next general election is Saturday, 19 December 2026.
Since the 2023 election, three parties have been deregistered: DemocracyNZ on 15 February 2024,[7] Leighton Baker Party on 27 May 2024,[8] and New Zealand Loyal on 26 July 2024.[9]
| Party | Leader(s) | Founded | Ideology | 2023 election result | Current seats | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % party vote | seats | ||||||
| 1936 | Conservatism, liberalism | 38.08% | 48 | 49 | |||
| Chris Hipkins | 1916 | Social democracy | 26.92% | 34 | 34 | ||
| / Chlöe Swarbrick | 1990 | Green politics, social democracy | 11.61% | 15 | 14 | ||
| 1994 | Classical liberalism, conservatism | 8.64% | 11 | 11 | |||
| 1993 | Nationalism, social conservatism | 6.09% | 8 | 8 | |||
| / Rawiri Waititi | 2004 | Māori rights, tino rangatiratanga | 3.08% | 6 | 6 | ||
| 2016 | Radical centrism, environmentalism | 2.22% | 0 | 0 | |||
| 2020 | Conservatism | 0.56% | 0 | 0 | |||
| / Michael Appleby | 1996 | Cannabis legalisation | 0.45% | 0 | 0 | ||
| 2022 | 0.33% | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Anna Rippon / Robert McNeil | 2023 | 0.17% | 0 | 0 | |||
| 2011 | Conservatism, right-wing populism | 0.15% | 0 | 0 | |||
| Jill Ovens / Chimene Del La Veras | 2023 | 0.08% | 0 | 0 | |||
| 2022 | 0.05% | 0 | 0 | ||||
See main article: Opinion polling for the next New Zealand general election.