Election 26: Election close as votes are counted

10:30 - That concludes our live coverage of national results. Thank you so much for following along!

The election remains incredibly close.

With 78.5% of the vote counted, party results are: 

National - 29.44%
Labour - 28.96%
Green - 13.43%
ACT - 11.07%
NZF - 9.80%
Opportunity - 5.88%
TPM - 0.56%
Others - 0.83%

Currently the seat tally is as follows

National - 41
Labour - 35
Green - 16
ACT - 13
NZF - 12
Opportunity - 7
TPM - 5
Total - 129

10:30PM - Final update on close races
This is the final rundown of races with a margin of less than 1,000 votes.
Hamilton East - Labour's Georgie Dansey leads National's Ryan Hamilton by 53 votes.
Wellington Bays - Green's Julie-Anne Genter leads Labour's Craig Renny by 73 votes.
Mt Roskill - National's Carlos Cheung leads Labour's Michael Wood by 194 votes.
Hutt South - Labour's Ginny Anderson leads National's Chris Bishop by 339 votes.
Te Tai Tokerau - Te Pāti Māori's Aperahama Edwards leads the Green's Hūhana Lyndon Party by 407 votes.
Takanini - National's Rima Nakhle leads Labour's Kharag Singh by 796 votes.
Whangārei - National's Lloyd Budd leads Labour's Gary Payinda by 928 votes.

10:10PM - Whangārei
The seat of former Minister of Health, Shane Reti, is currently close.

With Reti resigning at this election, National selected Lloyd Budd while Labour selected Gary Payinda. New Zealand First also selected a high profile candidate Vince Cocurullo, former mayor of Whangārei.

With 78.5% of the vote counted, Budd leads by 886 votes with a total of 14,170, Payinda has 13,284 votes while Cocurullo trails the two with 5200 votes.

10:00PM - Takanini
This seat, established for the 2020 election, the seat went hard for Labour in 2020, with Neru Leavasa winning more than 50% of the electorate vote. 

In 2023 it swung hard toward National as Rima Nakhle won by more than 50% of the candidate vote with a 23.6% swing towards her party.

With just over half the vote counted, the electorate race looks to be close. Nakhle is currently leading the Labour Candidate, Kharag Singh, by 751 votes. Nahkle has 7040 while Singh has 6289.

9:50PM - Mt Albert - White holds lead
Last election Mt Albert became the closest seat in the country with Labour's Helen White leading National's Melissa Lee by 18 votes. 

This election Qiulae Wong, leader of the Opportunity Party, is contesting the seat. The Green candidate Ricardo Menendez March is also re-contesting the seat.

With a third of the vote counted White currently leads Lee by 1763 votes. White has a total of 5140 votes, while Lee has 3377.

Menendez March has 1583 votes while Wong has 1468.

9:45PM - Wairarapa - Labour takes the lead in another close race.
The Wairarapa, once a safe National seat, has flipped to Labour's Kieran McAnulty as he takes a lead of 189 over National's Mike Butterick.

With 45.9% McAnulty has 10,343 votes, Butterick has 10,154 votes, while former Carterton Mayor, Ron Mark has been able to get 1953 votes.

9:30PM - Tamaki Makaurau - Oriini Kaipara gains a commanding lead
With 33.7% of the vote counted it is clear that Oriini Kaipara has gained a commanding lead over her opponents.

Former Labour candidate, now running as an independent, Kerrin Leoni is in second, less than 400 votes above the Green candidate Florence Te Ohaere. 

Kaipara currently has 8226 votes, a majority 4607 over Leoni's 3619. Te Ohaere has 3247 votes.

9:25PM - Nelson - Cameron flips the seat on current numbers.
Nelson was one of the three closest electorates at the last election. Labour's Rachel Boyack held a lead of 26 votes over National's Blair Cameron last election, and both are attempting to win Nelson once again.

Cameron has a lead of 546 over Boyack, with a total of 13,539. Boyack has 12,993 votes.

9:19PM - Hamilton East - A close race in regional NZ
In another close race, National's Ryan Hamilton leads Georgie Dansey by 165 votes in another crucial bellwether seat, Hamilton East.

With half the vote counted, Hamilton has 10,296 votes while Dansey trails with 10,131.

9:10PM - Mt Roskill - Cheung leads with only 147 votes
Mt Roskill, historically a safe Labour seat, was won by National' Carlos Cheung at the last election.

Labour's former MP, Michael Wood, is running to re-take his seat, however results continue to be close.

With 30% of the vote counted, Cheung leads with only 147 votes, with a total of 7421. Wood is on 7274.

9:10PM - Hutt South - Labour's Ginny Anderson takes the lead
Ginny Anderson has taken the lead over National's Chris Bishop in the close Hutt South electorate. 

Anderson is now on 11,583 votes, leading Bishop by 828 votes, Bishop has a total of 10,755 votes.

8:55PM - Te Tai Tokerau

Te Tai Tokerau is shaping up to be a very close race, with Te Pati Maori just nudging in front.

With 26% of the vote counted, TPM's Aperahama Edwards is leading on 5660 votes, followed closely by Green candidate Hūhana Lyndon on 5403.

Labour's Willow-Jean Prime is in third with 4079 votes. Coming in fourth is former Te Pati Maori MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, who is running under the Te Tai Tokerau Party banner after a spectacular falling out with her former party. She has 2661 votes.

8:25PM: Epsom is close. Seymour arrives at ACT election HQ, the first party leader to do so.

Currently the ACT party leader David Seymour's seat, it has been held by the ACT party since 2005, however the result is closer than usual with Seymour currently holding a lead of less than 1000.

With 30.6% counted. Seymour had 5209 votes while National's Paul Goldsmith only has 4270. 

Based on the current national result Goldsmith would be out of parliament due to the National Party gaining more electorates than seats their party vote would entitle them to.

David Seymour has just arrived on a yacht to his Auckland election headquarters.

8:00PM: Former MP for Wigram and Labour List candidate Megan Woods is at the Christchurch Labour Election night party

When asked how she was feeling Woods said their volunteers had been out door knocking for months, adding it was their night to celebrate.

"This is rightly their night to celebrate and reward themselves for an exceptional job."

Being the former MP for Wigram and campaign chair for Dominik Yanzick in the seat, she said she was keeping a very careful eye on results.

8:00PM Wellington Bays
Wellington Bays, covering the old seat of Rongotai and the neighbourhoods of Brooklyn and Mt Cook; is likely to be close. Labour candidate Craig Renney is hoping to take the seat back from Green MP Julie Anne Genter.

With 33.8% of the result counted Genter is leading with 9504 votes while Renney trails on 8608. National's Karuna Muthu has gained 3102.

7.50pm: Hutt South

Hutt South, current seat of National Party Minister Chris Bishop, is likely to be close and has been a bellwether in previous elections.

Currently, with 15% of the vote counted, Chris Bishop has 7119 votes; while Ginny Anderson, Labour party candidate and former electorate MP, is 195 votes behind at 6,924.

7.40pm: Tāmaki result is close

The ACT party was able to win the seat in 2023 with Brooke Van Velden. However with her resignation from politics at this election the seat will have a new MP.

So far 26.2% of the vote has been counted

Currently National's Mahesh Muralidhar is leading with 7093 votes, while ACT's Jame Christmas is behind on 3607 and Labours Max Harris on 3288.