Advance voting opened in New Zealand on Monday for the general election on Nov. 7.
On Monday the Electoral Commission had 207 voting places open — at shopping centres, transport hubs and community halls — with the total set to climb past 2,300 on election day, according to Reuters.
Voting for New Zealanders overseas had already opened on Oct. 21.
Neither major party has pulled clear. Polling in recent days has swung sharply between them. Under the country’s mixed-member proportional rules, that usually means coalition talks decide who governs.
The ruling centre-right National Party led the opposition Labour Party 32% to 27% in a 1News-Verian poll published on Oct. 20. A Post/Freshwater Strategy poll published a day earlier had Labour narrowly ahead, at 28.7% to National’s 27.6%.
In both surveys, the smaller Opportunity party polled around or above the 5% threshold needed to enter Parliament. That makes it a potential kingmaker.
Voting opened hours after enrolment shut at midnight on Sunday — a deadline that has drawn some of the campaign’s sharpest criticism.
This time, voters who are not already enrolled cannot sign up during the voting period, as they could in past elections. Miss the cutoff, and there is no vote.
Critics say the earlier cutoff could deter participation, particularly among groups that are harder to reach. The Human Rights Commission warned last year that ending election-day enrolment would likely restrict participation without justification. The commission said the change would fall hardest on underrepresented groups.
Enrolment stood at 3,729,667 as of Oct. 21, the Electoral Commission said — already more than the 3,688,292 recorded in total in 2023, when the rate reached 94.7%.
Advance voting runs until Nov. 6, with official results to be declared on Nov. 27.
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