Why 61?

New Zealand’s Parliament usually has 120 seats. To govern, a party or group of parties needs a majority: 61. SixtyOne follows the count on election night and keeps asking one question: who can get there?

Where the numbers come from

Every few minutes we check the Electoral Commission’s public results feed and keep a copy of each update. That history is what powers the charts showing how the night unfolded.

Election-night results are preliminary. They include advance and election-day votes, but not special votes, which are counted for the official result about three weeks later. Specials can change close electorates and the last seat or two.

How seats are worked out

When the Commission publishes its own seat allocation, we show that. If it hasn’t yet, we project seats ourselves the same way: parties with 5% of the party vote or an electorate seat share the 120 seats in proportion to party votes (the Sainte-Laguë method). A party keeps every electorate it wins, so if it wins more electorates than its share, the extra seats are overhang and Parliament grows past 120, which also raises the bar for a majority.

The “usual blocs” in the race to 61 are National, ACT and NZ First against Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori. Use Build-a-government to try any other combination.

Credits

Results: Electoral Commission. Electorate boundaries: Stats NZ and the Representation Commission (2025 boundaries), used under CC BY 4.0. SixtyOne is independent and isn’t affiliated with the Electoral Commission or any party.