NZ Political Parties 2026: A Neutral Guide to Who's Standing

In this guide

The parties at a glance
National Party
Labour Party
Green Party
ACT
NZ First
Te Pāti Māori
The Opportunity Party
Other parties
How parties win seats
Questions and answers
Sources

New Zealand's party vote decides who governs, so knowing the parties matters. This guide sets out the main parties in the 2026 election side by side: who leads them, how they did in 2023, and the headline pitch each is making. We don't rate them or tell you how to vote.

Parties are listed in order of seats won in 2023, then The Opportunity Party, the largest party without seats.

Quick answer

Six parties won seats in 2023: National, Labour, Green, ACT, NZ First and Te Pāti Māori.
The current government is a coalition of National, ACT and NZ First.
A party needs 5% of the party vote or one electorate seat to win list seats.
Many smaller registered parties are also on the party vote ballot. The full list is on vote.nz.

The parties at a glance

Party	Leader or co-leaders	2023 party vote	2023 seats	Role 2023–26
National	Christopher Luxon	38.1%	48	Government (PM)
Labour	Chris Hipkins	26.9%	34	Opposition
Green	Chlöe Swarbrick, Marama Davidson	11.6%	15	Opposition
ACT	David Seymour	8.6%	11	Government
NZ First	Winston Peters	6.1%	8	Government
Te Pāti Māori	Rawiri Waititi, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer	3.1%	6	Opposition
Opportunity	Qiulae Wong	2.2%	0	Not in Parliament

The 2023 Parliament: 122 seats

National
Labour
Green
ACT
NZ First
Te Pāti Māori / Māori Party

Official result, 2023: National 48, Labour 34, Green 15, ACT 11, NZ First 8, Te Pāti Māori 6. Two overhang seats made it 122; 62 was a majority. Source: Electoral Commission.

National Party

Leader: Christopher Luxon, Prime Minister since November 2023.
2023: 38.1% of the party vote and 48 seats, 43 of them electorates. A by-election win in Port Waikato later took it to 49.
Pitch in 2026: economy first, with a return to budget surplus and an expanded KiwiSaver scheme.
Website: national.org.nz

Labour Party

Leader: Chris Hipkins, Prime Minister from January to November 2023.
2023: 26.9% and 34 seats, half from electorates.
Pitch in 2026: living costs through health and transport, plus investment in jobs, housing and services.
Website: labour.org.nz

Green Party

Co-leaders: Chlöe Swarbrick and Marama Davidson.
2023: 11.6% and 15 seats, its best result, including three electorates.
Pitch in 2026: lower living costs and nature protection, funded by a wealth tax and higher taxes on banks and corporates.
Website: greens.org.nz

ACT

Leader: David Seymour.
2023: 8.6% and 11 seats, including two electorates.
Pitch in 2026: a six-point immigration plan, including deporting serious offenders.
Website: act.org.nz

NZ First

Leader: Winston Peters, who founded the party in 1993.
2023: 6.1% and eight list seats, returning to Parliament after missing out in 2020.
Pitch in 2026: citizens-only voting, splitting power generation from retail, and leaving the Paris Agreement.
Website: nzfirst.nz

Te Pāti Māori

Co-leaders: Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer.
2023: 3.1% of the party vote but six of the seven Māori electorates, which created a two-seat overhang.
Pitch in 2026: growing the Māori roll, plus housing, health, education and constitutional change.
Website: maoriparty.org.nz

The Opportunity Party

Leader: Qiulae Wong.
2023: 2.2% and no seats.
Pitch in 2026: costed reforms built around a land value tax. It describes itself as neither left nor right.
Website: opportunity.org.nz

The pitch lines above paraphrase Reuters' party factbox published in October 2026, kept to a similar length for each party. Read each party's own policy pages for the detail.

Other parties

More registered parties appear on the party vote side of the ballot. Each needs at least 500 financial members to register. Parties that aren't registered can still run electorate candidates. You'll find the full list of registered parties and every electorate's candidates at vote.nz.

How parties win seats

Party vote of 5% or more. The party shares in the 120 seats in proportion to its party vote.
Or win an electorate. A party that wins at least one electorate also shares in list seats in proportion to its party vote, even below 5%.
Otherwise, no list seats. Party votes for parties that do neither don't become seats.

Read the 5% threshold explained and how MMP works.

Questions and answers

What are the main political parties in New Zealand?

The parties that won seats in 2023 were National, Labour, the Green Party, ACT, NZ First and Te Pāti Māori. The Opportunity Party won 2.2% but no seats.

Who are the party leaders for the 2026 election?

Christopher Luxon (National), Chris Hipkins (Labour), Chlöe Swarbrick and Marama Davidson (Green), David Seymour (ACT), Winston Peters (NZ First), Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer (Te Pāti Māori) and Qiulae Wong (Opportunity).

Which parties are in government now?

National, ACT and NZ First have governed in coalition since November 2023, with Christopher Luxon as Prime Minister.

How many parties are on the ballot?

The number of registered parties changes each election. The full list for 2026 is published by the Electoral Commission on vote.nz.

Does this site support any party?

No. NZ Election is independent and isn't linked to any party or candidate. Party colours on this site are used only to show data.

Sources

Electoral Commission and vote.nz: registered parties and candidates.
2023 New Zealand general election: 2023 results.
2026 New Zealand general election: leaders.
Party pitches paraphrase Reuters' party factbox, October 2026.

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.