How to follow NZ election night 2026: live updates, TV, streams and radio

In this guide

1. TV and streaming
2. Radio
3. Live results
4. Live blogs and updates
5. A plan for the night
6. Watching with others
7. If you're overseas
8. Questions and answers
9. Sources

Election night is one of the few nights when the whole country watches the same thing at the same time. From 7pm on Saturday 7 November, broadcasters, newsrooms and the Electoral Commission all go live. Here's every way to follow it, and how to put together your own setup for the night.

TV and streaming

These were the broadcasters' announced plans at the time of writing. Check our Watch section on the night for links that open each broadcaster's own player.

Live TV can't usually be embedded on other websites, so streams open on the broadcaster's own site or app. If you're overseas, some streams may be geo-blocked. Radio streams usually aren't.

Radio

• RNZ Election Night Special: Saturday 7 November, 7pm to midnight, with Lisa Owen and John Campbell, on RNZ National, rnz.co.nz and RNZ's YouTube channel.
• RNZ Sunday Morning Election Special: Sunday 8 November, 8am to 10am, with RNZ's political team.

Radio is the best option if you're driving, at a gathering without a TV, or on a patchy mobile connection.

Live results

The results everyone is quoting come from the Electoral Commission. You can follow them in two ways:

1. Our live results page. Live results shows each party's vote, the seats that vote is worth under MMP, every electorate and how much has been counted. It works well on phones and refreshes on its own.
2. The official site. electionresults.govt.nz has the full detail, including results for each voting place.

Live blogs and updates

Newsrooms run live blogs from the evening, with results, reaction, speeches and analysis. Popular ones include:

• Stuff's politics live blog
• 1News: Your Vote 2026
• RNZ live coverage
• Our Coverage section, which collects reporting from across New Zealand media

A plan for the night

Here's a simple way to follow it without missing anything.

1. Before 7pm: vote if you haven't. Voting places close at 7pm. Anyone in the queue by then can still vote.
2. 7pm: put the TV or radio special on, and open live results on your phone.
3. About 7:30pm: first results arrive, mostly advance votes. Don't read too much into them yet. Here's why.
4. 8pm to 10pm: watch the party vote settle and the percentage counted climb. Keep an eye on any party near 5%.
5. 10pm: around half the voting places should be in. Commentators start making calls.
6. 11:30pm: most of the count should be in. Leaders usually speak around now.
7. Sunday: read the analysis, and remember the official result with special votes comes on 27 November.

Election night, hour by hour

1. 7:00pmVoting closes. Counting starts in every voting place.
2. 7:30pmFirst results expected, starting with advance votes.
3. 10:00pmTarget: results from 50% of voting places.
4. 11:30pmTarget: results from 95% of voting places.
5. LatePreliminary count finished. Special votes still to come.
6. 27 NovOfficial result, including about 700,000 special votes.
7. 3 DecWrit returned. Winners formally confirmed.

Watching with others

Election nights are social events for many people. A few tips:

• Use a second screen. TV for the speeches, phone for the numbers.
• Print or share a seat target. Agree in advance what number means a majority: 61 of 120, or more with an overhang.
• Have a glossary handy. Our election night glossary explains terms like overhang, specials and "too close to call".
• Mind the rules before 7pm. On election day itself, no campaigning or posts promoting a party or candidate are allowed until voting closes. See election day rules.

If you're overseas

You can follow results from anywhere through our live results page, the official results site and radio streams. Some TV streams may only work in New Zealand. New Zealand is on daylight time, 13 hours ahead of UTC, so results start at 6am UTC on Saturday 7 November. That's 5pm Saturday in Sydney, 6am Saturday in London and 1am Saturday in New York.

Questions and answers

Sources

• Broadcaster announcements, collected in our Watch section.
• Electoral Commission: election night results targets.
• Official results site.

This guide is general information about New Zealand elections, checked against the sources linked above on 3 November 2026. For anything about your own enrolment or vote, check vote.nz or call the Electoral Commission on 0800 36 76 56.

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