WELLINGTON: New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on Sunday his right-wing coalition had a path back to office, while conceding the vote was too close to call definitively and compromise would be needed after a hard-fought campaign dominated by cost of living issues.
Neither Luxon’s National Party nor the centre-left Labour won enough seats in parliament to form a government without minor parties in an election that put the two main parties neck and neck at 29pc — just a few thousand votes separating them.
Preliminary results had National winning the most seats, which would give them a very slim majority of just two if combined with coalition partners — the populist NZ First and the libertarian ACT.
“National is once again the largest party in parliament, and we have a pathway to forming the next government,” Luxon said to chants of “three more years”. “But right now it is too close to call.” He said he would run a caretaker government until the final votes were tallied on Nov 27.
Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2026
