Election 2026 to be held on November 7
Wednesday, 21 January 2026
The 2026 election will be held on Saturday, November 7.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon made the announcement on Wednesday at the National Party caucus retreat in Christchurch.
Luxon said “continuing the recent tradition of announcing the election date early in the year ensures New Zealanders have certainty”.
It means advance voting opens October 26 and the House will rise on September 24.
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He described it as the “logical time”. The last two elections were held in October.
While it didn’t leave much time to form a government before Christmas, should a coalition be required, Luxon was confident they’d be able to “sort that out”.
“We are going to make the case very strongly for a National-led Government. We have proven that we can work successfully with both ACT and with New Zealand First, and we're open to working with them again.
“But we want to make the case the strongest and most stable form of government, which will obviously be a very strong party vote for National.”
Luxon said it was clear his party would not be working with Labour, the Greens or Te Pāti Māori.
While the election date has only just been announced, the campaign has already started with parties gearing up in 2025 for the day.
National in November released its first election policy of increasing employee and employer KiwiSaver contributions up to a combined rate of 12%. Labour had released its policy on a capital gains tax and three free doctor visits in October.
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Luxon made his first speech of the year on Monday, telling Kiwis that the Government was doing all it could to get the economy growing as the rules-based international order it had relied on for decades was “rupturing”.
Meanwhile, Labour leader Chris Hipkins gathered his caucus in West Auckland this week.
He said if Kiwis wanted a clear election result and a Government before Christmas they should vote Labour.
He threw some cold water on the Prime Minister’s aspirations a Government could be ready by then.
“He confidently predicted it would take a matter of days to form government last time, and it was one of the longest coalition negotiations New Zealand's ever seen.”
Hipkins said Labour was ready for the election and would offer something different from his losing 2023 campaign.
ACT leader David Seymour told media he was “well rested and rip roaring ready to go for November 7”.
'We can't wait for this election. We think it's a very exciting choice for New Zealanders. Our mission is very clear - to sink the reds and greens without the country settling for beige.
On it being later in the year, Seymour said, “there's 52 Saturdays every year, and it was always going to be one of them”.
“Now we know. We just work towards it. As far as, does it give more time? I suspect it probably means that the economic recovery that has started will be clearer to New Zealanders.”
Following election day, the Electoral Commission said it would take 20 days for the final result to be released.