New Zealand General election 2017 — Results

Setting the scene

The 2017 New Zealand general election was held on Saturday 23 September 2017 to elect the 120 members of the 52nd Parliament. The governing National Party, in office since 2008 and led for the first time by Bill English after John Key's surprise resignation, won the most seats and the most votes — but fell short of a majority. After weeks of negotiation, the decision fell to New Zealand First and its leader Winston Peters, who chose to form a government with Labour rather than National. The result installed 37-year-old Labour leader Jacinda Ardern as prime minister, ending nine years of National-led government in a striking demonstration of how coalition arithmetic, not just the largest party, decides power under New Zealand's proportional system.

The electoral system

New Zealand elects its single-chamber House of Representatives by mixed-member proportional representation (MMP), adopted in 1996. Each voter casts two votes: a party vote, which determines the overall proportional share of seats, and an electorate vote for a local MP elected by first-past-the-post. In 2017, 71 members were elected from single-member electorates (including 7 Māori electorates) and the remaining 49 from closed party lists used to top parties up to their proportional entitlement. A party must win at least 5% of the nationwide party vote, or one electorate seat, to enter Parliament — which is why the party vote is the headline figure on the bars above. Voting is voluntary; turnout was 79.8%.

The political landscape

New Zealand politics is dominated by two parties: the centre-right National Party and the centre-left Labour Party. Around them sit the Greens (Labour's usual partner), the free-market ACT party (National's ally), the populist New Zealand First, and the Māori Party. Bill English had been finance minister through the post-2008 recovery and the Christchurch earthquakes; Jacinda Ardern had become Labour leader only seven weeks before the election, triggering a wave of enthusiasm dubbed "Jacindamania" that lifted a flagging Labour campaign.

How the vote went

National won 44.45% of the party vote and 56 seats, ahead of Labour on 36.89% and 46 seats. New Zealand First took 7.20% and 9 seats, the Greens 6.27% and 8, and ACT held its single Epsom electorate on 0.50%. The Māori Party, which lost its electorate seats, fell out of Parliament. With 56 seats National needed coalition partners to reach the 61 required for a majority, but Labour (46), the Greens (8) and New Zealand First (9) could together command 63 — so the balance of power rested entirely with Winston Peters.

Geography of the vote

National led the party vote across most of the country — the provinces, rural areas and much of suburban Auckland and Canterbury — while Labour's strongest regions were the southern cities and parts of Wellington. The interactive map above shows the party that topped the party vote in each of the 16 regions; click any region for the full party-by-party breakdown.

What happened next

On 19 October 2017 Winston Peters announced he would back Labour, and Jacinda Ardern formed a Labour–New Zealand First coalition with confidence-and-supply support from the Greens. Ardern became the world's youngest female head of government at the time and, in 2018, only the second elected leader to give birth in office. Her government's response to the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks and, from early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic would define its term and set the stage for Labour's landslide in 2020.

Data source

Electoral Commission of New Zealand — official results at electionresults.govt.nz.

Compiled and reviewed from official results by ElectioMap. See our data methodology.