New Zealand General Elections
AS OF 2026-07-22 · 54 CONTESTS · general election, 14 October 2023 · WIKIPEDIA, NATIONAL ELECTORAL AUTHORITIES
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Every New Zealand general election from 1853 to 2023: the colonial parliaments, the world's first election with women's suffrage in 1893, the first Labour government, four decades of two-party rule, and the coalition politics of the MMP era.
General elections
54
1853–2023
Latest
2023
National · Christopher Luxon
House seats
123
62 for a majority
First with women's votes
1893
a world first for a self-governing country
The chronology
Every general election, newest first, across six eras, from the multi-day polls of the 1850s to MMP's coalition mathematics. Click any election for the full result and the story.
The MMP era · 1996–2023
Mixed-member proportional voting rebuilt the system around coalitions: New Zealand First as kingmaker in 1996 and 2017, Helen Clark's three terms, John Key's three, Jacinda Ardern's rise and the 2020 landslide — the only single-party majority MMP has ever produced — then the three-party coalition that replaced it in 2023.
National 48Labour 34Green 15others 1
Labour 65National 33Green 10
National 56Labour 46NZ First 9
National 60Labour 32Green 14
National 59Labour 34Green 14
National 58Labour 43Green 9
Labour 50National 48NZ First 7
Labour 52National 27NZ First 13
Labour 49National 39Alliance 10
National 44Labour 37NZ First 17
The two-party era · 1949–1993
First-past-the-post delivered single-party majorities for four decades: National's long hegemony under Holland, Holyoake and Muldoon, Labour's brief stormy interludes, the snap election of 1984 that unleashed Rogernomics, and mounting anger at governments that broke promises with impunity — until voters chose MMP by referendum on election night 1993.
National 50Labour 45Alliance 2
National 67Labour 29NewLabour 1
Labour 57National 40
Labour 56National 37Social Credit 2
National 47Labour 43Social Credit 2
National 51Labour 40Social Credit 1
National 55Labour 32
Labour 55National 32
National 45Labour 39
National 44Labour 35Social Credit 1
National 45Labour 35
National 46Labour 34
Labour 41National 39
National 45Labour 35
National 50Labour 30
National 46Labour 34
Depression and the first Labour government · 1931–1946
The Depression broke the old order: Michael Joseph Savage's Labour swept to power in 1935 on a promise of security from cradle to grave, built the welfare state, and won again in 1938 with the highest vote share ever recorded. Their opponents fused into the National Party — and the two-party system was born.
Labour 42National 38
Labour 45National 34others 1
Labour 53National 25others 2
Labour 53United/Reform 16Country Party 2others 7
Reform 28Labour 24United 19others 8
Reform and the three-party years · 1911–1928
Massey's Reform Party broke the Liberal grip in 1911, and for two decades three parties — Reform, Liberal and the rising Labour — circled each other through war, influenza and depression, with United's surprise 1928 comeback under the aged Ward the era's final twist.
Reform 28United 27Labour 19others 5
Reform 55Labour 12Liberal 11others 2
Reform 37Liberal 22Labour 17others 4
Reform 45Liberal 19Labour 8others 8
Reform 40Liberal 34United Labour 3others 1
Reform 37Liberal 33Labour 4others 6
The Liberal era · 1890–1908
The 1890 election produced the world's first enduring party government of its kind, and the Liberals under Ballance and Seddon ran the colony for two decades. In 1893 New Zealand became the first self-governing country where women voted in a national election — a fact stamped on every contest since.
Liberal 50Conservative 26Ind. Labour League 1others 3
Liberal 58Conservative 16New Liberal 2others 4
Liberal 47Conservative 19others 14
Liberal 49Conservative 19others 6
Liberal 39Conservative 26others 9
Liberal 51Conservative 13others 10
Liberal 40Conservative 25others 9
The colonial parliaments · 1853–1887
New Zealand's first elections chose a parliament for a young settler colony: a property-based franchise, multi-day polling spread across months, and no political parties — members grouped and regrouped around personalities and provincial interests. Four Māori seats were added in 1868, decades before comparable representation anywhere else in the Empire.
Conservatives 52Stout–Vogelites 34others 9
Stout–Vogelites 57Conservatives 32others 6
Conservative Independents 45Greyite Independents 39others 11
Conservative Independents 45Greyite Independents 41others 2
Independent 88
Independent 78
Independent 70
Independent 53
Independent 37
Independent 37
The long arc in charts
Hover any point for the exact figure.
Turnout since 1890
New Zealand's turnout has been among the democratic world's highest for over a century, peaking at 93.7% in the snap election of 1984 and holding near 80% in the MMP era.
Labour against National
The two-party duel from Labour's rise to the MMP era, where shares in the 30s and 40s decide who assembles a coalition, including Labour's 50% in 2020, MMP's only single-party majority.
Records & superlatives
Highest turnout
96.3%
1949 general election
Lowest turnout
68.7%
1978 general election
Highest vote share
58.7%
Liberal, 1908
Most seats won
67
National, 1990
First with women's suffrage
1893
the first national election in the world in a self-governing country where women voted
Changes of PM at the ballot box
10
of 44 elections since the party era began in 1890
How New Zealand elections work
Two votes under MMP
Since 1996 each voter casts an electorate vote and a party vote. The party vote sets the House's proportions: 72 electorate seats are topped up from party lists to 120 seats, with a 5% threshold waived for parties that win an electorate.
The Māori seats
Māori electorates have existed since 1868, decades before comparable representation anywhere in the British Empire. Māori voters choose which roll to enrol on, and the number of Māori seats moves with that choice; there are currently seven.
Three-year terms
New Zealand's parliamentary term is among the world's shortest. Governments campaign almost permanently, and the country has voted more than fifty times since 1853.
No upper house, no constitution
The Legislative Council was abolished in 1951 and there is no single written constitution: Parliament is close to sovereign, which made the referendum-driven switch to MMP in 1993 all the more remarkable.